Thread: Fear of Dreams

Welcome to DV!

I can't really offer a lot of advice, but you might try the tutorials section.
I used to have a lot of nightmares as well, which is how I first learned to have lucid dreams. And a lot of nightmares are good learning experiences, and are a great way to induce lucid dreams, so they aren't all entirely bad. I myself am still recovering from a summer full of terrifying hornet and wasp dreams. But I am learning to overcome my fears about them...

I know that what you are saying about dream time is true, some dreams can seem to last for ages, while others are incredibly short, even if you sleep for the same amount of time for each one. I don't know about purposely altering it though. I haven't tried it personally, but there have been some threads about it floating around somewhere.

Here's to having your first awesome LD!

By the way, to empasize the lack of dream recall and nightmare stuff, the last time I can recall a dream was last year, during Christmas. Also, the tutorials have nothing on dream control. Anybody else have any answers?
And btw, I've never had a lucid dream...

Hmm... have you tried here?
As for dream recall, the best advice I've heard is too take it slow. Keep a dream journal (or even a scrap of paper and a pen) and gradually take notes as you remember them. Don't rush yourself.

Tip: As soon as you wake up, stay still and keep your eyes closed. Stay like this for a few minutes and try to remember anything about your dreams. The theory is the less light and movement, the better the recall. This is just what someone told me, and it works fine for me.

And btw, I've never had a lucid dream...

Heh, I know, I meant something more along the lines of "I hope your first LD will be a great one"...

Welcome, and you might want to check this thread, it's about dream control.

Thanks a bunch.

Although there is still the fear factor (lol). I've been reading the stuff about Dream Characters and I would be scared to death if most of that stuff happened (wow, now I feel like a sissy). Is there anything about this in the forums?

Yes, it is possible to completely stop what is happening in a dream and go do your own thing. I have ended several nightmares, or changed them so much they were no longer nightmares.

However, that doesn't mean it will be easy or happen the first time you try. I have been activly battling nightmares for about 5 years. I have made huge progress, but I am still have more to go before I will feel like I have truely conqured my nightmares.

So, yes it is possible. But it is very rearely easy or quick. However, it IS WORTH IT!

Everyone is telling you about dream recall because it is an intergral part of lucid dreaming.

Alright. How long did it take you to get over the nightmares, Seeker28?

Lol, double-posting. Anyway, I've come to a conclusion.

If I cannot get over this ridiculous fear of my subconcious, then I don't think I'm cut out for lucid dreaming. In my opinion, 500 good dreams are equivalent to 1 bad dream. I know I am really going off on this, but I cannot just 'forget' the nightmare as easily as I think some of you can. But thank you all for trying to help me anyway. I guess there are other things I can do instead of lucid dreaming... Good luck in the future, everyone!

I had nightmares so bad I was afraid to go to sleep. My doctor prescribed a medication called "minipress." It is a blood pressure medication, but has recently (in the last few years) been found to reduce nightmares associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for many people. You can get PTSD going through a traumatic event(war, rape, assault, hurricane, etc). That's how I got it. Anyway, that is when the nightmares really got unbareable. I started the med and they stopped. Completely. It doen't work for everyone with PTSD, but I was lucky. Now that I am better at controlling my nightmares I have reduced the dose of minipress, and hope within a year to be off of it completely. I'd say it took me about 6 months to get to the point where I felt the nightmares were bearable. Now they are hardly bad at all. But, as someone who has had lucid dreams my whole life, I had a head start on anyone who would have to learn.NOTE: minipress works only for nightmares associated with PTSD. If you think you might have it, talk to a doctor. If you do they may consider prescribing minipress.

I don't know anything about you, so I won't assume anything. I want to be a whole person, in touch with my inner self. If you don't want to, then don't. However, in my experience all the work, pain, and trauma is worth it. I know exactly what you mean when you said 500 good dreams couldn't make up for one bad one. I've been there. And, yes, looking back, it has still been worth it. You have no idea the thrill, the surge of self-confidance, the mind-blowing bliss of taking on your worst fears and walking away the winner. As bad as the nightmares were, this makes up for all of it.

If you are happy the way you are, then don't bother undertaking the work of becoming lucid and beating your nightmares. It's gonna be a lot of work and probably take a long time. But if you're not happy, then do something about it!!

However, that said, if your nightmares are because of something in waking life that happened to you and is STILL happening, you need to get out first. If you are a kid and can't leave, just focus on surviving until you can leave. Wait to start the battle with lucid dreaming until you are in a safe place in your life.

Good luck, 9 Songs.

Hello "The 9 songs" and welcome to dreamviews.

Here's my two bits worth.
1. POSITIVE THINKING.
Your nightmares are simply dreams, bad ones, but dreams and through Lucid Dreaming you WILL be able to learn to control them and turn them around so that they have a pleasant outcome.
I'b bet you have NEVER been physically hurt as a result of a nightmare or bad dream have you? Maybe woken up shaking and sweating but never mutilated because it was just a dream. Think positive that you cant be hurt.

2. THE BASIC SKILLS.
Dream Recall. You may now remember having dreams now but when you start a dream journal, you will be teaching your brain to remember them. It starts off slowly and builds up.
Reality checks. One of the most important skills to learn and turn into a habit. WHY? Whilst you are having a dream you want to do a RC and when you do you will realise you are dreaming and presto, Lucid Dreaming.

3. DONT TRY.
Dont try to have a Lucid Dream yet. Get the basics skills up and running and most likely the LD will just happen for you. If you read about peoples first LD you will find that most were not trying. If you try and fail, it produces anxiety, frustration and disappointment. These inhibit a persons ability to LD and a lot of people LD for the first time AFTER they have given up trying.

Having a LD is one of the most amazing and fantastic experiences you will ever have and its impossible to explain the sensation to someone who has not experienced it. It is well worth the effort to achieve.

Dats all folks.

Good luck, best wishes and again, Welcome.

Originally Posted by Ronstek

Hello "The 9 songs" and welcome to dreamviews.

Here's my two bits worth.
1. POSITIVE THINKING.
Your nightmares are simply dreams, bad ones, but dreams and through Lucid Dreaming you WILL be able to learn to control them and turn them around so that they have a pleasant outcome.
I'b bet you have NEVER been physically hurt as a result of a nightmare or bad dream have you? Maybe woken up shaking and sweating but never mutilated because it was just a dream. Think positive that you cant be hurt.

2. THE BASIC SKILLS.
Dream Recall. You may now remember having dreams now but when you start a dream journal, you will be teaching your brain to remember them. It starts off slowly and builds up.
Reality checks. One of the most important skills to learn and turn into a habit. WHY? Whilst you are having a dream you want to do a RC and when you do you will realise you are dreaming and presto, Lucid Dreaming.

3. DONT TRY.
Dont try to have a Lucid Dream yet. Get the basics skills up and running and most likely the LD will just happen for you. If you read about peoples first LD you will find that most were not trying. If you try and fail, it produces anxiety, frustration and disappointment. These inhibit a persons ability to LD and a lot of people LD for the first time AFTER they have given up trying.

Having a LD is one of the most amazing and fantastic experiences you will ever have and its impossible to explain the sensation to someone who has not experienced it. It is well worth the effort to achieve.

Dats all folks.

Good luck, best wishes and again, Welcome.

Ok, I'm back. I think that, if I can, I should try to get over the nightmares through lucid dreaming. I guess I can just ride out the nightmares until I become more experienced. Anyway, I actually had a lucid dream and I wasn't trying!!! I'll put in another thread. The thread is called, "First Lucid Dream! Yeah!" in experiences. Thank you all for caring. Until next time!

Maybe you could use it to your advantage. I used to have (well, I probably still do, it hasn't let me know yet) a really intense nightmare and just before it happened I became lucid because I knew what was coming. The only problem is by that time I found myself spiralling uncontrollably into a vortex of terror, like you do. A few times though, I've been able to stop it, in fact these were my first lucid experiences.

If you know the reoccuring features of the nightmares, even though you can't avoid dreaming you can probably train yourself to recognise them and become lucid at this point, and somehow avoid the nightmare. Plenty of people gain lucid dreams this way, even those who never seek to persue them.

If you can remember your nightmares, try looking at them from a different perspective. Rather than seeing yourself in the dream as helplessly being assailed by "other' things or "other" people in your dream, look at everything that arises in your dream as a manifestation of yourself in some way.
See the characters, situations, and places that arise in the course of the dream as metaphors for some aspect of yourself in your waking life. You wouldnt hurt yourself in life so if the things in your dreams are a manifestation of yourself, then they would not hurt you either. Think in terms that they are there just to simply tell you someting about yourself. From there then see if there is any meaning you can find by the arising of these "metaphors" in the dreams.

Yeah, lucid dreaming is basically the best thing you can do to deal with nightmares. I used to occasionally have horrifying nightmares where I was paralyzed and horrible things were approaching me, through lucid dreaming I learned to face them without fear, then without paralysis, and recently have been able to banish them easily and quickly so as to continue with my lucid dreaming. The whole process took no more than 30 dreams, and possibly as few as a dozen, over the course of about a year, but I wasted a lot of time trying to physically fight them or push them away, so if you don't bother with that, you could probably get the same amount of progress in much less time.

As for your question about time, it is possible to make a lucid dream last longer, through preventing yourself from waking up. There are a number of ways to do this, one that's been particularly reliable for me is that once you notice the dream fading, you should move your dream body as much as you can to create the feeling of movement, and tell yourself that you'll wake up in another dream, not waking life, and quite often you will. However, if you're talking about making a 15 minute dream contain an hour's worth of events, that's either impossible or much harder to do, as few people claim to be able to do that, and there are no popular techniques for learning to do that.

in my dreams, i kill micheal myers.... lol i did have a dream about that a few nights ago.

anyways, congrats on your first lucid.

when you do become expirienced enough to face your nightmares, remember not to panic. like i was saying i had a dream about meeting michael myers and i kicked the crap outa him. i had a few other dream characters with me so that gave me some courage but yeah, he was a pushover.

oh and heres another tip. stick with a group. it just makes sense that ur gonna be more scared when ur alone.

if its dark, open a window

if you cant move, drink a coke and strecth.

just dont panic when ur ina nightmare.