Nightmares

[Ban]

Do you have them? Please tell me your worst ones to ensure that I will never have blissful sleep again.

My worst one was a fairly standard feverdream that I had as a kid. Green and blue demons with many heads adorned with horns and filled with knife-long teeth grew out of the walls of my living room and lunged themselves at me only to disappear when they hit me. In retrospect this does not sound too scary but it was terrifying when it happened.

 

[Saigonnus]

My "dreams" (I don't call them nightmares) tend to be dark. Me being pursued through a post-apocalyptic wasteland by shrouded figures seems a common theme.

Some visceral ideas for my writing.


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[DragonOfTheAerie]

Mine are usually anxiety triggered. Why i can't take a nap when i'm feeling anxious.

I dreamed once that someone was reading the Chronicles of Narnia aloud to me in a very sinister, evil voice. I don't know why. But i woke up having an anxiety attack...

I have a lot of vomit-related nightmares, being emetophobic.

Never a lot of story inspiration.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

My "dreams" (I don't call them nightmares) tend to be dark. Me being pursued through a post-apocalyptic wasteland by shrouded figures seems a common theme.

Some visceral ideas for my writing.


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...that sounds cool actually...

Now i'm suddenly remembering a dream i had where i was at a park and i left everyone else and started walking away on my own and walked across a desert and ended up in a wasteland during a nuclear winter...

 

[Ireth]

I had one once where I was apparently in a personalized version of hell. It had different levels, similar to Dante's Inferno. The first was your typical fire and brimstone, but I had a pillowcase that apparently kept me safe. A woman threatened me with something, and I told her I'd include her in a book I was writing.

Then there was an empty grey field before level two, which was a playground full of demon children (weirdly, a twisted version of the elementary school just down the street from my house) who wanted me to play with them. The "swingset" was a set of nooses and the play structure/jungle gym/whatever you call it was a death trap with swinging blades and stuff like that. I made it about halfway through a tunnel of blades before I woke up.

 

[Butterfly]

I had one last night!

I had a cut on the top of my foot, like a pinprick and it got infected. My foot swelled up until my skin between ankle and leg cracked and split and started weeping pus, and the infection spread up my leg to my knee until the whole front flesh of my lower leg fell away in front of a lot of people. I was searching for bandages to hold it all together.

Then it flashed forward through doctors, and antibiotics not working, until a surgeon was getting ready to amputate. That's when I asked him if he could keep my bones so I could make a flute out of them.

 

[Ban]

I had one last night!

I had a cut on the top of my foot, like a pinprick and it got infected. My foot swelled up until my skin between ankle and leg cracked and split and started weeping pus, and the infection spread up my leg to my knee until the whole front flesh of my lower leg fell away in front of a lot of people. I was searching for bandages to hold it all together.

Then it flashed forward through doctors, and antibiotics not working, until a surgeon was getting ready to amputate. That's when I asked him if he could keep my bones so I could make a flute out of them.

Well that was unnerving... It could also be a good origin story for the latest and greatest superhero: "Boneflute Person".

 

[Phyphor]

I've had a recurring dream since I was a teenager - so, perhaps thirty years. Well, it's not actually a dream, it's just something that regularly pops up in dreams. Absolutely no idea why.

It's a white, single story building built from huge, rounded, smooth stones. There are no doors or windows - just holes where they should be - and outside it's always baking hot, like it's in New Mexico or something (not that I've ever been there). Inside, its dark and cool, no furniture, just alcoves and corridors that are kind of 'moulded' into the walls and leading off into pitch blackness. I always get a sense of sanctuary when I go inside.

Bit of a dull dream, sorry, but one day, I'll find that building!

 

[Sheilawisz]

Those are some really cool nightmares, everyone!

I have many weird and very twisted dreams, but I do not consider them nightmares because they do not have any powerful effect in me. I know that most of my dreams would be nightmares if they happened to other people, but to me nightmares are only those that frighten me enough to cause me to wake up.

Some time ago, I was in a Medieval city and there was a Plague outbreak.

I have researched a lot about many deadly infectious diseases, but Plague is the only one that really creeps me out. In that nightmare I was frightened by the scenes of death and agony everywhere around me... It was a dark and cloudy day, and then I tried to take refuge inside of a beautiful cathedral.

Then, I discovered that the cathedral was already being used as an improvised hospital to fight the epidemic.

It was very dark and gloomy inside, and there were what looked like hundreds of people sick and dying everywhere. I tried to escape, only to realize that the wooden doors were closed and locked and there was no way to get out of that place. I just wanted to escape, terror and dread were everywhere and I was trapped there with the Plague...

And then, I woke up with a severe sense of desperation and fear.

 

[RedAngel]

I typically remember most of my dreams and many of them are mostly apocalyptic in nature so I guess they constitute as nightmares. Sometimes they seem to include a plot and other times they often just seem to happen. They take place in all manner of times or places.

The first one that comes to mind is when I was really little. I would go to sleep and my dream would seem as if I was still awake and would watch red eyes under my dresser all night or other variations would be what seemed like an entire night from the perspective of under the dresser. Nothing at all would happen but those red glowing eyes just staring at me.

Another dream started with a plot of sorts. It started with some a huge swamp with some stange green colored water. I cant rationalize it to this day but it seemed like either the water was some kind of sludge, algae, chemical, or something. But when the animal goes to drink it gets pulled into the "sludge". It then becomes undead. It happens over and over again until the animals start attacking and dragging children and eventually people into this mixture. They were certainly dead but they retained almost all their mental faculties and speech but they were animated rotting corpses. They possessed no real abilities or anything but it was creepy and they had taken all my other family members during the dream.

Another nightmare was pretty much the end of the world. This one seemed to span months in the dream and no matter how much I woke up it was like a pause / play button when I started dreaming again. It would not stop raining for nearly a month. And it just kept getting more and more intense as it went on. I remember watching the tv in the dream with my grandma, mom, dad, bro, and sis and the news was talking about how the earth had somehow sped up and that the weather would only continue to get worse. They showed all this devistation from all around the world. Eventually there were just perpetual tornadoes and flooding until there were like 1000 tornadoes all around that were coming down and connecting with others. They destroyed everything around me and just before I died I woke up.

I had another one which seemed to span nearly 6 months or more in which the China decided to invade the US. Mind you this was many years before the red dawn remake. But all of a sudden the west coast went dark and there was no word what had happened and all communications a week later stopped. First the airforce headed overhead towards the west. Then all communications and tv went dark. Then tanks, men, and artillery started passing towards the west. Slowly word began to spread of an invasion. Most did not believe it. Then Chinese bombers started to destroy the city of Chacago where I lived. Then it seemed like th US government comendeered all civilian planes and commercial planes and strapped them with machine guns and missles and a huge aerial battle took place over the skies of the midwest. Planes were being shot down all around the area and were exploding all around us. So we started to migrate to the east coast. To our surprise there was another attack from that direction and we ended up resorting to open warfare in the streets of a city that I think was somewhere around Cleveland. Then for whatever reason we hitched a ride on some plane and flew to Hawaii (dont as me it didnt even make sense in my dream either lol). Then the Chinese found out and nuked the island we were on and ended the dream.

I have had other dreams where there were a series of dreams over a week's time that encompass what could be described as a year or more in time within the series of dreams. They often would include some deceased family member(s). They often start out happy to see them and in the dreams I know that they are dead. They seem to be those people and I often ask them things that I think they should know in order to prove that it is them. Then i start asking them all sorts of strange questions about the afterlife. As time goes on there is something really strange about them that arises that I cannot put my finger on and they reveal that they have their likeness and memories but they are not who I think that they are. In one of the dreams my dead cousin told me to go and destroy a wall in this building near my house. So I did and behind it was stairs that seemed endless leading downwards. I woke up. Not all of them are like that but they do all have some strangeness to them.

Some nightmares seem to stem from my writings or from my world. Sometimes gods are returning and are super wrathful causing all sort of things to happen. Sometimes it is mythical monsters, sometimes I have the power to resist or stop them.

There are so many more I could put down but that is a small sampling of them. I would say that by far would be the dreams when I try to quit smoking and use nicotine patches, but I will save them for another time perhaps.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I've not had many nightmares in my life, but a recent dream was quite startling and more than a little frightening.

It was also in the first person perspective, which is rare for my dreams.

I was at this dingy, dark, depressing manor of some kind, where a [rich?] family lived and were ruled over by an imperious, cruel aunt [of which I have never met before...] She gave me a pop-up book, but for some reason I turned it over and started reading it backwards. The pictures were just as gloomy and weird as the scenery, and when I opened it to the last four pages, glowing skulls popped up out of the book. I flipped he other pages forward, which seemed to be describing and illustrating various kinds of child torture [!], with a little caption under a small, blonde-haired child reading 'You'. I gave the book back to the aunt, and she glared at me from her dark corner, and asked me what I thought of it. I said "the psychology of it is fascinating!", and she glowered at me.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I've not had many nightmares in my life, but a recent dream was quite startling and more than a little frightening.

It was also in the first person perspective, which is rare for my dreams.

I was at this dingy, dark, depressing manor of some kind, where a [rich?] family lived and were ruled over by an imperious, cruel aunt [of which I have never met before...] She gave me a pop-up book, but for some reason I turned it over and started reading it backwards. The pictures were just as gloomy and weird as the scenery, and when I opened it to the last four pages, glowing skulls popped up out of the book. I flipped he other pages forward, which seemed to be describing and illustrating various kinds of child torture [!], with a little caption under a small, blonde-haired child reading 'You'. I gave the book back to the aunt, and she glared at me from her dark corner, and asked me what I thought of it. I said "the psychology of it is fascinating!", and she glowered at me.

that is disturbing O_O

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^I've actually had a nightmare that was even more disturbing, but in a way that's hard to describe.

 

[ThinkerX]

I suppose it could be termed a 'nightmare.'

I was driving through a rural area dominated by tree and brush covered hills. Extremely thick brush, much like where I live. In the dream, the place 'seemed familiar,' like I'd been there a few times in the past. There were people I intended to see for 'business,' though I'm not clear what that business was - a lot of question asking. Maybe a agent for somebody. Lot of talk on the news about aliens. Anyhow, that's the background.

Core of the dream - version 1.0 :

I pulled up to a 'futuristic' type place set into a hill. Kind of resembled a large 'flying saucer' with a cabin perched on it. Long shadows. Creepiness factor went up as I stepped out of the vehicle. Then I heard this child's voice, interspersed with a sort of buzzing sound coming from the dwelling. 'No Mommy! No! Don't do it!' With that aforementioned 'buzz' between each word. Creepiness factor shot up. I figured the aliens must be present in the house, but I couldn't make myself move forward. Then I woke up, dream still bouncing around in my head.

The kids voice bugged me. Couldn't quite place it.

Went back to sleep. Version 1.1 of the dream -

No mention of aliens this time, though the landscape remained much the same. The house had transformed as well: no longer futuristic, just a ratty oversized cabin with a large silver trailer parked next to it. The buzzing became static, from a radio or television. Then I realized what the kid was *really* saying and everything 'clicked.' Not aliens, not a home invasion, but...

...a rather ugly 'domestic violence' situation.

Then I woke up again. (yes, I don't sleep well anymore.)

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I had something akin to a nightmare last night.

I dreamed about a criminal couple who murdered a man and buried him in a deep watery hole that was filled in right in front of the downtown library. Then they got paranoid about whether they would be suspected or not, and went more than a little crazy. They were at their house with their two kids when an assassin who looked exactly like Teatime from the Discworld novel Hogfather showed up as if literally out of nowhere, armed with a gun. When asked by the male murderer if he was in fact called Mr. Teatime, the assassin bluntly said ‘No’ and shot all four of them one by one [for some reason I seemed to be in the female murderer’s perspective, so it was like I was the one getting shot. Then, just as the assassin was about to leave, both the couple and their kids suddenly lurched to their feet as if controlled by strings, clearly somehow alive despite getting shot in the head, and then the police showed up and arrested the assassin [for some reason the officer on duty was female]. Then the woman suddenly decided to confess about the murder, and told the police exactly where to find the murdered man, but then the dream ended before I found out what happened next.

...

So if Mr. Teatime is showing up in my dreams...does that mean I read too much Discworld? [Even though I only have three books?] Then again, I did read a book about the divine feminine and all of the horrible patriarchal things that have been going on for thousands of years, so...

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hello everyone!

The other night I had this quite eerie dream. I think that it does not qualify as a nightmare because it did not cause me to awaken in great fear and angst, but it was scary all the same. I am sure that it's connected to my recent experience during the earthquake, since in my waking life I was in my favorite shopping mall when it happened.

In this dream, I was happily shopping in a mall that looked like a huge skyscraper all made of steel and glass. It was a slender and elegant structure, like a huge spire instead of a normal building. Instead of having windows it just happened that entire walls were made of glass, and you could see the sky above and other parts of a nice city outside.

Then the quake started, and the glassy tower began to shake in a very alarming fashion.

Some parts of the structure began to fracture and fall, and I was sure that the entire tower was going to collapse on top of me any moment... the quake just continued with no end in sight, and I could see a different building through one of the glass walls like one kilometer away from the tower mall.

It was another mall, very similar to the one that I visit in waking life. I witnessed as the entire building collapsed during the terrible shaking of the quake, and I could hear the terrified screams of thousands of dying people in the distance.

Many other buildings were collapsing in many parts of that unknown city, people were running in terror and I was there, trapped inside of a giant tower made of glass... then the quake ended, and everything for me was alright.

I did wake up after that, but without a sense of angst and danger like it happens to me with actual nightmares.

 

[Chessie2]

I had a really terrible nightmare the night before last and I kept waking up from it. In it, I was in hell but it wasn't hot. Hell was a cold dark place and I was bound to a bed. There were demons sitting on my chest laughing. I knew I was separated from God and that it was forever.

I was so scared. It was awful. Nightmares are something I get regularly and they do keep me awake.

 

[Ban]

I had a really terrible nightmare the night before last and I kept waking up from it. In it, I was in hell but it wasn't hot. Hell was a cold dark place and I was bound to a bed. There were demons sitting on my chest laughing. I knew I was separated from God and that it was forever.

I was so scared. It was awful. Nightmares are something I get regularly and they do keep me awake.

Out of curiosity, would you consider yourself a religious person? I'm just wondering because I have never experienced any heaven or hell type dream.

 

[Chessie2]

Out of curiosity, would you consider yourself a religious person? I'm just wondering because I have never experienced any heaven or hell type dream.

Not religious as most would define it. But I am Christian, yes. What's crazy is that I have nightmares more than regular dreams. I've always been this way though. They'll keep me awake too.

 

[Ban]

Not religious as most would define it. But I am Christian, yes. What's crazy is that I have nightmares more than regular dreams. I've always been this way though. They'll keep me awake too.

I'm sorry to hear that. I always hate having the rare nightmare, although I usually forget about it right away. So for you it's not necessarily religiosity that causes the nightmare but other factors, and your religion just happens to be a way in which your brain decides to haunt you. That's interesting, thanks for sharing