Anyone else NIGHTMARELESS?

I am sorry, once again, I could not figure out where to post this. I have mentioned before in a previous post, that I do not have nightmares. I think it pretty accurate to say that I have NEVER had one. Perhaps as I child I did and simply cannot recall them. Perhaps I do all the time and don not remember them? It seems people are always telling stories about childhood nightmares & recurring nightmares. Frankly, I think I'm jealous. Please do not bash me for that or call me sick. Remember "ignorance is bliss" & "The grass is always greener". I am sure they are quite frightening and perhaps I would "Eat my hat" after experiencing one. They sound like your own little private horror movies. When you wake up everything is fine. Right? I just do not have one single nightmare story to retort when the subject presents itself. I've just always wondered why....

I fully invite all serious opinions no matter how bizarre....

Any professional Brain MD's in the house?

Any professional mind pickers in the house?

Anyone heard of studies?

ANYONE ELSE NIGHTMARELESS???

Thanks
~Hypno

I use to have nightmares on a regular basis, sometimes three in a single night. It simply got to the point where I have started blocking them out so if I do have them I don't remember them anymore. I could barely go to sleep at night because I knew in a few hours I would be awake again, dripping with sweat and mid scream. You may think you want to experience them, but trust me you don't!

[edit on 6-6-2008 by Jenna]

I haven't had any recently, but I think having them can help give you balance during your waking hours. Perhaps they set certain standards for your subconsciousness resulting in you becoming truly aware of what is good in life (having experienced the very worst in your dreams).

In dreams your emotions aren't governed by the same laws as your conscious state. The love, fear, and anger you feel in dreams & nightmares can be unimaginable, and often quite distorted. They're far more intense than what we normally experience from day to day. The relief felt upon waking from a nightmare after the initial fear subsides is very comforting, and very, very strange - especially if it was particularly real.

Many people don't remember dreams, bad or good, when they awake. Some nightmares happen well before wakening, and very ofter a new dream will start with you never having woke up.

I think yes, ignorance can be bliss, but try and make it a point to remember bad dreams or nightmares. A lot can be learned from them. By the way, do you remember to good ones, weird ones, or even the so-so ones?

I recall reading something about how certain sleeping positions can induce nightmares. Do you have a favored sleep position? Do you have only pleasant dreams or no dreams at all?

I personally haven't had a nightmare for a VERY long time, probably years. I was thinking about it just recently. I've had very weird dreams, I've had dreams that have predicted things happening (a car accident for one.. that really freaked me out), lucid dreams, but no nightmares.

Maybe nightmareless people are just really balanced.. or entirely insane! Interesting subject...



[edit on 6-6-2008 by mattguy404]

I seem to have interpreted many of my nightmares as latent anxieties in real life. Often they are portrayed in a fashion colored by the most "frightening" things in my daily life, and as chance has it, I love horror movies.
So you can imagine how gory and violent so of mine can be. I killed a woman yesterday, because she was annoying me and I was fearing that she was about to turn into a zombie the 28 days kinda way.

If I was to guess as to why you don't have nightmares I would probably call you a pretty balanced person. Like Evasius wrote your brain starts working on unresolved issues when you go to sleep. Not necessarily as in the last equation you didn't do for the next day, but maybe someone said something to you, or something happened to you that you couldn't account for or understand.
I'm not saying you should listen 100% to your dreams, but if you learn to interpret what the different symbols in exactly you dreams means to you then I think you can learn a great deal about yourself. EVEN if you never have nightmares.

To be honest I'm jealous of you... I have nightmares almost every single night. Every-time it's the kind that wakes me up. I hate it..

I've never had nightmares either. Nor have I ever dreamt that I'm falling (which I understand is a common theme?)

The nearest I get to a dream in which my worst 'fears' are realised is when I dream about tornadoes - because in such dreams, without exception, my d*mned camera either disappears or doesn't work

Most of my dreams tend to be pretty 'realistic' too, albeit sometimes with some sci-fi elements to them. I've had a few which on wakening I've thought they'd make a good book or movie ..... Pretty sure it's just my brain getting bored and entertaining itself.

Edit: I wouldn't say I'm especially well balanced. But insane? Quite possibly

[edit on 6-6-2008 by Essan]

I had reoccuring nightmares when i was a kid.

I can't tell the difference, sorry.

I suppose i should worry about that actually, that my nightmares became my dreams...

Of course, it's done wonders for my mental stress capability.

If I recall correctly most people have 3-5 REM stages per 8-hour sleep session, and the only dream you typically remember is the one that occurs in the last stage before you wake up. A nightmare can always wake you up in the middle of say REM stage 2, so you'll remember it. But it might not, so you won't.

Then you can get into all the speculation on what causes nightmares (as opposed to night terrors, a documented medical disorder). Subconscious stress, unsolved problems, etc. If you don't have in your life whatever may be a particular trigger for you, it won't happen.

Wow, thank you for all the interesting input. Rather than ""ing many posters I will try to address everything.

I do not have a favorite position to sleep. I only know I can't seem to fall asleep if I am on my back. I have never had the "Flying", "Falling" or "Everyone sees me naked" dream. I have had sexual dreams (I'm male, I think that is a given). I do wake up and feel like I just hit the bed (no dream of falling though).I do recall dreams all the time. I cannot recall any dream that seems to be good either. My dreams are pretty mundane but crazy non the less.

Typical examples of mundane dreams:

I dream I woke up and went to get doughnuts ate a few and went back to bed. When I awake I believe I really went to get doughnuts and head for the fridge. Guess what? No doughnuts !!!

Myself and someone I work with are discussing our work in the break room. This somehow changes into my girlfriend & I are discussing a topic while folding laundry. Some how the dream all makes sense and the "switch" is not noticed, until I awake and recall the dream.

Variations with a crazy factor of the above example:
I am a Dinosaur and though male, my coworker could be wearing a purple skirt. In the dream its all good. The dinosaur is simply chatting about work with his human buddy in the purple skirt....


The very worst dreams I can recall.

I dreamt I purchased a stereo system I had been coveting for some time. I am on the floor listening to a cd very happy and tapping my foot. Suddenly a loud deep voice declares "Now wake up in the real world" & I truly awake.

I approach a field. Many people I know are picking up pipes looking in them, screaming and fleeing. I approach a pipe and peer in to see what all the excitement is about. The pipes are filled with snakes. I dump all the snakes on the ground and began going though them. I hold up a python and think "thats odd, pythons don't live in these parts ,must be some ones pet." I hold up a water moccasin and think "what in the world is he doing so far from the water". Basically, I'm not scared in any way I just go through all the snakes and contemplate how in the world they got stuffed into a pipe in the middle of this field...(No I would not pick up strange snakes in real life)

My brother and I are playing with real bows and arrows. I hear something odd and realize he just accidently shot an arrow at me.. Cut to a close up cartoon view of the arrow (like Wiley coyote just before it hits him between the eyes). I think wow this cant be good, its a fatal shot, "game over". and calmly wake up...

I am a young prince in the crusade era (elevated sense of self importance, I don't know), The opposing forces are chasing me and my group with the intent of either killing me or kidnapping me. A female nanny type figure makes it all a game for me and I rather enjoy what should be very stressful. She pops a reed into my mouth & plops me into lake. The opposing forces pass me by while I marvel at the fishes underwater which I realize are actually underwater fireflies....

Rarely, I dream of a book, a show or a movie I am really into at the time. They tend to be recurring and each time I play a different role. A great example is the show Lost. I have dreamt that I am Charlie saving Clair's baby, Jack in love with Kate, Kate in love with Saywer, and even the smoke monster, chasing people in all my smokeyness laughing as I spook everyone....

Hope this helps

Thanx again
~Hypno

I have NEVER had nightmares. Not as a kid, nor as an adult.

However, I do have very stressful dreams - usually having to do with something that stresses me out while awake (my mother, my family, as examples). These dreams always cause me to grind my teeth and clinch my jaw....causing dental issues for me....and major headaches.

I have also had dreams that some would call "predictions"....but there could easily be a more reasonable explanation then "I must have ESP".

I too have never had a dream where I'm falling.

I have many stupid dreams that mean nothing.....and I'm unable to retell them because they are so stupid and meaningless. And I have a couple of these odd dreams that I have over and over and over....strange. One involves me shopping in a mall.

And last but not least.....when I dream of people I KNOW.....in my dreams, they NEVER look like they do in real life. My mind makes up completely new looks for these people. How weird is that?

But no nightmares here. Thank God!

reply to post by HypnoAsp


I used to have plenty of nightmares as a child, even had a few "nightmare within a nightmare" situations where I had a nightmare, woke up but was actually in another nightmare... However one night I prayed to God that I would never have a nightmare again and I haven't since, however I don't think it has anything to do with God, it has to do with growing up...

As I got older what constituted a nightmare changed to the point that in order for me to have a nightmare today it would have to be INSANELY scary or painful, that's why I haven't had nightmares. Also my childhood fears of ghosts, monsters, demons, and alien abduction subsided so I had fewer reasons to have a nightmare...

I have no idea what science might have to say about someone who hasn't had a nightmare since science doesn't know all that much about dreams anyway, interesting thread...

You want a nightmare?

tonight when you go to bed, sleep the opposite way.

meaning...feet where your head is and head where your feet are.

You will be sure to dream.

Let me know how it goes.

Originally posted by greeneyedleo

I have also had dreams that some would call "predictions"....but there could easily be a more reasonable explanation then "I must have ESP".

I too have never had a dream where I'm falling.

I have many stupid dreams that mean nothing.....and I'm unable to retell them because they are so stupid and meaningless. And I have a couple of these odd dreams that I have over and over and over....strange. One involves me shopping in a mall.

I'm more willing to call it a dream that came true out of happy coincidence or some sort of macabre sub-concious affinity for abstract though as opposed to some sort of supernatural force at work.

That kind of thinking just makes me let go of reality that little bit more, which leaves me feeling somewhat uneasy as to the truth of my own existence.

Still, once you learn to enjoy the simpler things in life, you'll probably start to enjoy those 'stupid and meaningless' dreams a little more.

I actually do still have nightmares, I wake up most times screaming and my wife has to comfort me. I've had nightmares though as long as I can remember. However the other day I had a really strange nightmare that has stuck with me for a few days and I haven't really wanted to discuss it, but here goes...

I came home around 3:00 pm in the afternoon after my shift was over and decided to take a nap because I hadn't slept very well the night before. I turned on the tube to Food Network, set the sleep timer for an hour, pulled the blanket up on me and layed back on the couch. I would guess around 15 minutes later I was sleeping, but what was weird was that I went right into dreaming, and the dream started out good, at least from a male perspective. There was a beautiful blonde woman on top of me who engaged in kissing me, we were on the couch where I was currently sleeping, and I engaged her back. But this is where it got a bit weird, when I finally looked into her eyes I realized they didn't seem normal, and somewhere inside of my head I heard the words Succubus, and thought I woke up. She was gone I was looking at my apartment without anyone there and I was still covered in my blanket just like when I originally layed down, except I couldn't move, I was paralyzed. I remember mumbling Succubus multiple times until I really did wake up and saw my cat laying on the floor and Food Network still playing on the television.

It was one of the weirdest dreams I've ever had, and I can't seem to get it out of my head. Any insight into this would be appreciated also.

reply to post by Maverycke


Hi Maverycke...

Here's a reference to Succubus

In Western medieval legend, a succubus (plural succubi) or succuba (plural succubae) is a demon, who takes the form of a beautiful woman to seduce men, especially monks [1] in dreams to have sexual intercourse. They draw energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death of the victim.[citation needed] One such story[2] relates to a man in the town of Coblenz, who has been bewitched by a succubus, with whom he is forced to repeatedly fornicate, whilst in the presence of his wife. The story goes on to say that "after an incredible number of such bouts, the poor man at last sinks to the floor utterly exhausted." From mythology and fantasy, Lilith and the Lilin (Jewish) and Lilitu (Sumerian) are in redactive Christian fables (folktales not part of official Christian theology), considered succubi.

I remember having a dream awhile ago about going down a slide into this kind of underworld. Down below I saw Satan, yet he had the upper half of his body as a man, and his head had horns, but the bottom half was the form of a goat. And he had an erection. I never knew what that dream meant till about a year or so ago I came across the definition of a satyr.

Funny because the satyr is found in the King James Version of the bible. Another reason why I don't by that book any longer.

That is really strange as i rarely have dreams. I normally just shut my eyes and wake up

[edit on 8-6-2008 by welsh alien]

reply to post by welsh alien


Same. I very rarely remember my dreams. Would be nice tho though.
Can't say I have ever recalled having a nightmare in my entire life.

I may just try what CommanderSinclair suggested, just to see .... :O