Nightmares?

Hello, I am new here and I haven't tried lucid dreaming yet, but I was wondering, is it possible to have a dream that is so horrifying and scary that it can leave marks on you?

I am easily scared and I get too excited/anxious at times, and well, I'm afraid :shock:

I was also wondering if your mood/thoughts before falling asleep can affect your dreams.

Thanks in advance.

(sorry for any grammar mistake in this post, English is not my first language)

It is possible that a scary thing could be summoned in your dream. Hopefully, by doing enough research about lucid dreaming you'll realize that there's no need to be afraid, it's just your imagination. Thinking about scary things will usually make them appear, so try to think about positive things. Try to have some dream goals you are really excited about so that when you become lucid you don't harp on the nightmares. Try to make a list of things you will do if something scary happens- for example, acting friendly towards something scary can easily cause it to be nice and friendly back! Or saying, "Hey take off that mask, Halloween's over" or something along those lines can divert a dream in a much more positive direction :)

All in all I've had three lucid dreams that I would classify as scary, and only one of which I would call a nightmare. It was my very first, when I had no knowledge of all these techniques for getting rid of scary things, no idea what a lucid dream was, and I realized that I shouldn't think about scary things or they might show up. Worrying about things? Number one way to cause them to appear in a dream. Just don't worry about it, and you'll be fine :)

Some dreams are can be really terrifying, but they are few and far between and they don't leave a mark on you for long. Nightmares can give you a bad day, but won't last longer than that. They can't effect you physically and should effect your mood. If you find yourself afraid of something or depressed, it's because of something else.

If you're having nightmares, those can be great ways to enter a lucid dream. Once you realize that you are dreaming the nightmare will be under your control and you can change it to your liking.