What are your recurrent nightmares about?

I used to have that dream! It was the end of the semester and I would find out I was failing a class (usually math) because I had simply forgotten I’d signed up for it and hadn’t gone all semester. I never skipped class in my waking hours. (Well, I did once, but there was a good reason and I talked to the prof about it before hand.)

Last night. Was the first of these sort of nightmares, but I have a feeling they will come back.

My mom was murdered with one of those industrial staple guns. My grandma with car jumper cables.. This dude was just chasing me all over some town I’ve never seen trying to kill me. Every time I would try and call the police, SOMETHING on my phone would go wrong. Bad times.

My recurring nightmares are about something happening to my little sister (usually car accident, once gunshot). I think it’s my biggest fear in real life that I could lose her someday and it carries over into my nightmares sometimes.

An IRS audit. Gawd, makes me shiver even when awake.

I haven’t had a nightmare since I was about 6 years old. I feel like I’m missing out.

Suzy, Empress—too weird, because I have had that same dream on and off since college. I finally trained myself to recognize this dream and say to myself in the dream, “Wait a minute – I’ve got my diploma!”

I sometimes have awful baby dreams. I dream that I’m supposed to be looking after a baby and it’s going to die if I don’t help it and I can never help it. the dreams are different every time. Once I dreamt that the baby was so small that she could just slip through my fingers, which she did. The next night I dreamt that people were after her and I had to hide her but they found me and took her away. the last baby nightmare I had actually ended happily. I dreamt that it was really hot out and I had to get this baby some water or else she was going to die but I couldn’t find any. Finally I found an ice cream truck that was full of melted water from the freezer and I gave that to her.

Those dreams always freak me out.

Almost always about losing my children. Most frequently they are literally lost, and I can’t find them. I become increasingly frantic in those dreams until something wakes me up. Awful. Even worse though is when I lose them in a ‘death by horrible accident’ kind of way. I wake up screaming/crying from those dreams. I am so glad these dreams don’t occur very often!

I very regularly have nightmares where people I care about are in danger and I’m somehow restrained or otherwise unable to get to them to help, and I’m forced to watch them suffer and/or die. These started when I was about 14.

Since I was four or five, I’ve had recurring nightmares of being stalked through a maze by something with glowing yellow eyes. It always sticks to the very thick shadows, so I can never see anything except the eyes, but they’re cat-like eyes. My grandmother (who died when I was nine years old) calls for me, trying to help me get through the maze safely, but I can never find her.

I also have awful dreams where I’m back in high school and I’m forcibly outed by the administration and fellow students react very badly. Vicious name-calling, beatings, even rape… I’ve only had these for the past couple of years, more than five years after graduating.

Wow! So many of you have really, really scary recurring nightmares. Mine are just about math. Though @KatawaGrey I’ve had similar dreams where I’m supposed to be taking care of my mom’s dogs and I forget and they starve (not as bad as a baby, but similar fears). And @steelmarket I’m impressed that you can tell yourself anything reasonable in your dreams. I’m not that rational when I’m dreaming!

suzy, years ago as a kid I started working on directed (lucid) dreaming as a way to end a reoccurring series of bad dreams. I developed it pretty far, but it takes regular practice and I slacked off. Also, I found that it made my dreams less spontaneous and inventive. But I can still do it occasionally, when needed.

Wow! these are so reminiscent of many of my own nightmares. I wonder what process is involved in which people share so many of the same fears?

I do not remember my nightmares as much anymore, or perhaps I have learned to block them out. I guess growing older does have some advantages.

I’d rather not share them, but if you really want me to, I will.

Trains and Airports

lynne, I travel a lot, so I often dream of lost luggage, missed connections, lost reservations, etc. Pretty much my real life.
Ah, but then there’s those rare dreams where I get to fly – without a plane !

big lurve for you…brave!,...travelling scares me… seriously!! going to ask a question about it actually….

THIS!

It’s nice to know some experiences are kind of universal in a certain kind of person.

@EmpressPixie That cartoon is PERFECT!! Thank you!