Topic: Had a rather terrifying nightmare

[PyroMenace]

I've had some bad ones but this one I've never quite experienced before, this one really played with my sanity. Due to the meds I take I have vivid dreams but usually I dream about typical weird stuff or they are sometimes life stress related.

Basically I dreamed that I couldn't wake up. I was fully aware I was dreaming and I sort of had some control over what was happening so I basically felt free to do anything except I knew it all wasn't real and that I wanted to get out. I kept trying to think of ways to wake myself up but I was helpless, then I started to thinking that maybe I was dead and that I was stuck there forever. I started wondering how long I've been there and then tried to think of the last thing I did before I went to sleep but I could barely remember anything. Finally I did wake up having only been under for a couple hours, but damn, that was pretty fucked.

[Xessive]

Have you tried going into a dream within a dream then kick yourself back out?

Man, some dreams or nightmares can be pretty intense. The feeling of being trapped and unable to recall things must be like suffocating!

You ever wonder if the dream world is actually a parallel universe that you manifest in when you sleep in this universe?

[TheOtherBelmont]

Damn, dude that's pretty crazy.  I haven't had a crazy ass nightmare in a while but god damn do they suck.  I used to get a lot of the ones where I would wake up but couldn't move and felt like someone was holding me down or even worse, where I saw a shadowy figure holding me down.  Fuck you brain.

[Xessive]

Honestly, I haven't had a nightmare since I was about 11 when I learned to control my dreams.

Until that point I used to have a recurring nightmare where I was being chased in a forest by thousands of snakes, led by a giant one. That nightmare haunted me since as fas back as I can remember until one night, when I was 11, I consciously recognized that it was a dream and instead of running I stopped and turned around. What ensued was what I can only describe as an Japanime-esque hack'n'slash frenzy ending with a blade in my hand severing the head of the leader snake.

Ever since that night I've been in control of my dreams (for the most part), like a director on a film set. I let the dream run but when I sense that it's heading a direction I'm not comfortable with I intervene and redirect it. That's where the fun comes in, the adjustment can come in any style, whether I simply turn around or change my path or I get the tools I need to resolve and in some cases I've even morphed into something else.

[scottws]

That sounds like a pretty cool dream Pyro, conceptually at least.  I definitely see how you could become fearful though in a situation like that.

Last night I dreamed a stop light violation camera flashed me and I was mad and tried to think of a way to make my license plate show up as gibberish on cameras but not look illegal normally.

I can't control my dreams, but I do realize I'm dreaming some of the time.

[Quemaqua]

Congratulations, you just dreamt one of my favorite movies.

[shock]

Those dreams can be quite scary.  I used to get them a lot, but you can learn to "kick" yourself out of it.  I think the ones that are even scarier are when your mind wakes up, but your body is still asleep.  You basically feel like you are in this murky, quasi awake state, but you are entirely unable to move.  You have to use the same sort of "kick" to get yourself up again, but eeeeeek.

Also: I loved Waking Life.  Didn't know anyone else had heard of it!  I haven't seen it in a long time, though.  I just started keeping a dream journal again.  I got lazy for a few years there.  Should help my dreams get more vivid.  I've lost control of my dreams in the past few years unfortunately.

[K-man]

I used to have recurring dreams of planes crashing around me.  It was never the same dream, just the same scenario.  I'm standing outside for one reason or another.  Then a plane appears in the sky and I know it's going to crash.  Sure enough, it starts to go down, and usually attempts some sort of impossible physics to right itself, but it always crashes near me.  I never feel fear, and I am never concerned with whether there are survivors.