help with dreams

[GhostofZane]

i have tried lots of things to help with my dreams i have been having nightmares for the past 6 years every night with out fail and dont know what to do i have seen doctors and all they tell meis that is intoresting and nothing more besides lets put you on this med so that you will sleep all night but all that dose is make it so i cant wake up from the nightmare people have tryed to wake me when i start screaming but i wont wake i have been in hospitals and am still lost i have tried dream stones both store bought and found on my own i am looking for help if anyone has ideas i would like to hear them i will try anything to have a good night sleep even if it is just for one night

[Mark]

Hello Ghosts of Zane,

 

I am sorry to hear about your nightmares. I used to have nightmares as well - not as many as you seem to be having but they were scary and frustrating nonetheless.

 

I can't say that there was an easy answer for helping me with my dreams. But over the course of several years I was able to get a better handle on them and now I never have nightmares. There were two things that seem to help me the most. First, I actively started working with my dreams. I researched all I could on them and eventually I set an intent before going to sleep that I would gain control of my dreams and face my fears. Second, I actively started to use self healing techniques. I used several from a form of meditation to some shamanic techniques. The most powerful of the self healing techniques I used was the recapitulation. Here is an article that is on our site that explains it: http://www.shamanscave.com/self-healing/the-recapitulation Neither of these things are what I would call quick fixes. It will take time but your relationship with your dreaming energy should change if you apply these techniques.

 

I would also suggest getting angry with your nightmares. Before you go to sleep say to yourself, "I will not let my dreams scare me." or "I will get angry at my nightmares if they occur." This may help you to gain a bit of control over them.

 

I'm sorry I don't have any better answer for you. Sometimes these types of things aren't easy to solve. I will check back often to see if there is any change with your dreaming. Please write back with any questions or if there is a change with your dreams either positive or negative.

 

Mark

[sandstorm333]

I only ever had one nightmare that I couldn not wake up from, but that was enough to understand the hell you are experiencing. In that dream I had to accept that this was it and I just had to live it until moment of death and the death was going to be slow and horrific. As i gave up all hope and accepted this, there was a young boy sitting beside me, in the same situation as me and the terror was beyond belief so I layed down my head on his lap for comfort and woke up. So Im thinking. If you somehow could manage to plant a turn of button of your own choice. Maybe write it down again and again. Think it again and again. Draw it. Say it out loud etc, etc, For me a lap represents comfort and security and it comes from reality. Is there something real in your life that represents this for you and that you can use for that turn of button? Is there someone in your life that you feel comfort and security with? If there is, borrow some clothes from this person, unwashed Im afraid and sleep with it so you can smell this persons smell. This i have done and it worked for me.

Nightmares are not always about stuff inside you? Is there someone you are afraid off? It doesnt matter if the person can hurt you or not? Do what you have to do to feel that you can fight back? To feel safe without being a victim.

[Heather]

I don't suffer nightmares to the extent that you do, but there are a few things that I have found helped over the years, if you want to try them.

 

Recalling the content of the nightmare in the daytime with your objective mind, and if you understand where those nightmares might come from, working on talking, writing or breathing through those events so that they are not hidden from your waking life.

 

Another method that has worked for me, is to change the nightmare to give you a positive resolution of what is happening. That doesn't have to be during the nightmare, it can be done when you wake from the nightmare - so for example, if something is chasing you, picture yourself getting angry with it or flying up into the air away from it, watching getting smaller below you - or if something is broken, picture yourself being able to mend it and put it back together with your mind - whatever feels right for you. It's not a quick method, but when I did this as a child, I eventually remembered that I could change what was happening during the dream.

 

I hope that things will change for you soon.

[Karl]

I used to have terrible nightmares. I learned to "set" the dream, to create the dream while falling asleep, and then it was the dream. After I did that a while, the nightmares never came back. Never had them since then.

[Moonshadow]

{{Ghost of Zane}}

 

Not to undermine how emotionally awful nightmares can make you feel, especially when you can't wake up from them, but sometimes nightmares can be a sign of sinking deeply into your dreaming energy while also being a little awake at the same time, so kind of in between. Because strong dreaming energy can be unfamiliar to your mind, the mind often recoils and translates the dreamscape into something negative and alarming. I used to have nightmares but not so much anymore. Now, when I do, I get all excited, because I know as a maker that I was doing some cool dreaming stuff that is elaborated more on in the Dreaming 1 Class. Remember, it's your dream: draw a mirror or a door and leave through it and go somewhere else if you need to.

 

Mandy

[barrybid]

Nightmares are very bad.

[KAF]

I used to have nightmares all the time until I taught myself how to take control of them and turn the nightmare around to what I wanted to happen. Now I no longer have them as frequently or scary as they used to be since I know I can control what happens in them. Learning how to do this did not happen overnight it took me a long time to figure it out and since then I no longer have a fear of them.

[Alex]

The main posted originally posted in 2015, but I'll share my insight since this post has been brought back from it's eternal slumber.

I've had dreams with fear and I've had nightmares. Karl gave some good advice with how to preempt a dream to be something. For nightmares when I have them they usually come along with a feeling of unknown. Why is this happening? I don't like this. These kinds of reactions come up. Separate from nightmares are dreams with the experience of fear, but without the feelings of rejection or lack of familiarity. Recap is kind of the cure all for this kind of problem, but there are other things that I've come across that can work as band-aids.

When your nightmares are this vigorous band-aids are in high demand, so what I've found is that confronting the nightmare really helps. For some this is talking to it. For me it's willing myself to experience it and notice what the dream is trying to tell me. Compulsory repetitive fear often comes from trauma. The dreamscape usually becomes the dumping ground for the mind, so identifying where the fear stems from, event wise, can help you overcome it by dealing with the root.