Thread: Outgrowing Nightmares?

You'll always have nightmares but they seem to get rarer as you grow up.

I used to have a recurring nightmare that lighterally left me shaking and in tears. It was unbelievably realistic to the point where everything in the dream would be happening as it was in reality. Literally: in one version, I was in my room in uni, could see the light in the corridor under the door and hear the morons I lived with playing corridor hockey. The nightmare happens (I feel an evil presence in the dark creeping towards me but I'm paralized and can't scream no matter how hard I try followed by two or three repeats after false awakenings) and I woke up to hear the morons continue the conversation and game of hockey they were having in my nightmare. And this updated itself to fit the room and situation I was sleeping in. Yep, my brain hates me.

And then last summer, the dream started again and I just went "wait a minute... I'm not falling for this one again." and that was it. I woke up and I knew I'd never have that dream again. It tried to sneak up on me again once but I recognized it under its new guise and gave it the finger

Originally Posted by Seachmall

I'm wondering is it natural to outgrow them or will I have one again?

I watched a fascinating doc in the UK, it was all about sleep. From sleep dissorders to knightmares. It even featured Steven LeBerge and LD.

They reckoned that knightmares are not only common in young people but nescessary to train them to recognise threats and make them more prepared to take appropriate action if faced with a simialr situation in the real world.
They added that you never stop having them, just that the context changes. We still playout worst case scenariouse, but they are more likely to be about someone stealing your car or losing your job.

I remember having a recurring knightmare about a shadowy figure stood watching me. I can still feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whwn I think about it now thirty odd years later.