Thread: I don't have any nightmares!?

Hey, your like me. I usually remember nightmares because they're really vivid and they wake me in my sleep. But that was when i was a child, I have not had a nightmare that i can remember for a longggg time. I really dont know myself why i dont have nightmares, maybes it's a coincidence. But my question to you is, do you just want to know why you don't have nightmares or do you want to start having nightmares again?

Perhaps you don't trouble with facing fears in waking life or traumas do not affect you as deeply. (Or maybe you are lucky and haven't had many traumas in your life.) Nightmares can signify feelings of helplessness, but you say you don't feel helpless in dreams even when the dreams contain danger or problems. So that's my guess is that you handle things like fear and stress well.

Originally Posted by LucidMonogatari

But my question to you is, do you just want to know why you don't have nightmares or do you want to start having nightmares again?

Well, on the one hand I could use them to induce lucid dreams or maybe can use them to grow, but on the other hand I think I could be quite lucky without them and inducing LDs with nightmares is only optional.
So I don't especially want to have nightmares if this isn't unhealthy. But I question myself (and now you ) if this is indeed not unhealthy. I've read, for example that with a raising number of remembered dreams per night one naturally also remembers more and more nightmares (and lucid dreams). But even in my highest phase of remembering dreams (like 5 or 6 "full length" detailed dreams a night) I never had a nightmare even once. Even in my "darkest" hours I didn't remember any nightmares, which leads me to the question if I unconsciously suppress(ed) my nightmares because of there exploding intensity or if I am just one of these exceptions of the rule. Or, as I read CitizenOfZeal, maybe is this even a sign of health?

Originally Posted by CitizenOfZeal

Perhaps you don't trouble with facing fears in waking life or traumas do not affect you as deeply. [...] So that's my guess is that you handle things like fear and stress well.

May I ask you what you mean with "Perhaps you don't trouble with facing fears?" I am not a native English speaker and I am not sure how the word "trouble" is used here. Do you mean I don't tackle my fears (like in "don't take the troubles of tackling one's fears") or do you mean tackling my fears isn't troubling me or something else?

I have some decade old traumas I think and some of them are affecting me since now. Even though I begin to get over it I wouldn't consider them "shallow" nor would I consider them especially deep.

To the last part: Call me humble or stupid, but I never ever considered or noticed that I handle fears and stress well. But now that you say it, I keep some calm in most situations when others are getting stressed out. (But then again I am still quite the fearful person when others are not: Long time I had a phobia of dogs. Now I am still struggling with some unconscious fears that hinder me in one way or the other - some kind of mild social fears, fears to express emotions freely and the like.)


Thank you two for taking some time for my troubles.

I'm not sure if this could help you in anyway, but I too don't have nightmares. When I was younger, around the age of 5, I used to have terrible nightmares just about every other night and I would wake up screaming. However, I remember one day thinking about a nightmare I had the night before. I started to laugh because the more I thought about it, the more stupid it seemed. By realizing this, my nightmares stopped being nightmares. I couldn't control my dreams or anything remotely like it, but my mind just stayed calm, and when I finally woke up, I wasn't scared because I had been focusing on how funny it was.

So with that, I haven't had a nightmare in 10+ years, with the exception of a couple of months ago when I had a nightmare about spiders, which is pretty much the only thing I'm really scared of. XD

But after I had it I did the same thing of realizing how unrealistic it is to have thousands of spiders crawling over you instantly, and you can't get them off no matter what you do.

So maybe you unconsciously did something similar to what I did so rather then having nightmares, you just have normal, but vivid and long dreams. Anyway, I hope this helps because I think this is what happened to me.

Is it possible that practicing lucid dreaming has just armed you with a powerful sense of rationality in dreams? That is to say, if you always know that you're dreaming, there's no reason ever to be afraid.

Originally Posted by Empty

Well, on the one hand I could use them to induce lucid dreams or maybe can use them to grow, but on the other hand I think I could be quite lucky without them and inducing LDs with nightmares is only optional.
So I don't especially want to have nightmares if this isn't unhealthy. But I question myself (and now you ) if this is indeed not unhealthy. I've read, for example that with a raising number of remembered dreams per night one naturally also remembers more and more nightmares (and lucid dreams). But even in my highest phase of remembering dreams (like 5 or 6 "full length" detailed dreams a night) I never had a nightmare even once. Even in my "darkest" hours I didn't remember any nightmares, which leads me to the question if I unconsciously suppress(ed) my nightmares because of there exploding intensity or if I am just one of these exceptions of the rule. Or, as I read CitizenOfZeal, maybe is this even a sign of health?


May I ask you what you mean with "Perhaps you don't trouble with facing fears?" I am not a native English speaker and I am not sure how the word "trouble" is used here. Do you mean I don't tackle my fears (like in "don't take the troubles of tackling one's fears") or do you mean tackling my fears isn't troubling me or something else?

I have some decade old traumas I think and some of them are affecting me since now. Even though I begin to get over it I wouldn't consider them "shallow" nor would I consider them especially deep.

To the last part: Call me humble or stupid, but I never ever considered or noticed that I handle fears and stress well. But now that you say it, I keep some calm in most situations when others are getting stressed out. (But then again I am still quite the fearful person when others are not: Long time I had a phobia of dogs. Now I am still struggling with some unconscious fears that hinder me in one way or the other - some kind of mild social fears, fears to express emotions freely and the like.)


Thank you two for taking some time for my troubles.

Very interesting. I'm thinking it is a sign of good health or you are in some way supressing your fears when you sleep some how 0_0

Originally Posted by Empty

May I ask you what you mean with "Perhaps you don't trouble with facing fears?" I am not a native English speaker and I am not sure how the word "trouble" is used here. Do you mean I don't tackle my fears (like in "don't take the troubles of tackling one's fears") or do you mean tackling my fears isn't troubling me or something else?

Ah, my apologies. I meant "Perhaps you don't have troubles with facing fears?"

I don't have nightmares either. At least not the wake up in the middle of night because its scary nightmares. I get a few once in a while that are kind of creepy and might be considered a nightmare to some. However if it doesn't wake you up I don't really consider them a nightmare.

I actually just went to look up some stats on it, and a website I found said that only 5-10% of adults have nightmares at least once a month. It is a lot higher with children, but it just seems people don't have them as often as adults. I don't think it is that common to have lots of nightmares.

Originally Posted by Skillet7

Is it possible that practicing lucid dreaming as just armed you with a powerful sense of rationality in dreams? That is to say, if you always know that you're dreaming, there's no reason ever to be afraid.

This could be a factor for the last 5 years or so. But not for the years before, since I haven't had a nightmare since childhood (or early teenage years).
Also my motivation for practising lucid dreaming was fluctuating in the past. Maybe a year ago I would consider myself on the level of someone who never heard a thing about lucid dreaming.
Sad as it is but the number of my lucid dreams (that I can remember) is around 2 or 3.

Originally Posted by Alric

I actually just went to look up some stats on it, and a website I found said that only 5-10% of adults have nightmares at least once a month. It is a lot higher with children, but it just seems people don't have them as often as adults. I don't think it is that common to have lots of nightmares.

In another article I've read that 25% of children (5-12) have at least one nightmare per week. The number raises till the age of 25 and declines to a third till the age of 55. I am 23 years old and have as much nightmares as children to the age of 5 have: No nightmares at all. I have fewer nightmares then a man (men have fewer nightmares then women) at the age of 55+.
(Source: Nightmare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - I should note that I looked at an article which examined the study in foodnote 4 further. I should also note that I am not perfect and may have done some failures while extracting the data)

In another study 12%* of all tested people haven't had a nightmare at all (18% non-LDer, 7.7% casual LDer and 10.4% frequent LDer | Source: "Luzides Träumen und seine Bedeutung für die seelische Gesundheit - Eine empirische Studie", Janine Girzig, p.131).

(* I calculated this number myself)

So at least I am not alone.

@MysticalDipshit: This could be possible. I have a calm personality I think. But I ain't so sure about this.

@LucidMonogatari: I am not sure about this myself. Maybe my conclusion that I am quite fearful is wrong? My ex-therapist said one can be blocked by fears without feeling fear (=unconscious fears), which often results in avoiding the cause of the fear by, for example, watching TV or sitting in front of the computer all day long, etc. Even before going to therapy I believed this was true. May I be wrong (in my case) and I am not fearful and just too lazy to leave my comfort zone?

@CitizenOfZeal: Supposed I have this many fears I wouldn't say that I don't struggle with overcoming them. But then again even though I struggle with fears (or my laziness) I never feel helpless while struggling. Maybe this is why I don't have nightmares. Even in the most dangerous dream-situation, even when feeling some realistic fears (who wouldn't feel fear in a war dream-situation for example?) I never feel helpless: Like in films, when the hero feels fear in dangerous situations but never feels helpless even whilst running away.

I thank you all for your help!

Stats... he pulled up stats? Wow. Someone who actually does their own homework; very GOOD sir!

And, for the record, I've had fewer than ten nightmares in my life. Welcome to the club. ^_^