Nightmare
I just woke up from a horrible nightmare. This is common for me, I have them at least once every 2 weeks now. They used to be about once a month, but now they are much more frequent. I have potential reasons for these things, but first let me tell you about my dream.
I was in a giant house with my brothers and some other people. Like a GIANT house. There were tons of flights of stairs leading to different landings. We were on a mission (I'm always on a crazy mission in my dreams). This time I had a special stun gun, and I was looking for a giant spider that liked to torture people. Since this house had so many rooms, my brothers and I were basically shouting and stomping around to see if we could raise enough commotion for the spider to come out and attack so we could stun it (and maybe kill it or imprison it...my dream thinking didn't get that far).
So I was running up some stairs with my brother Keith, and we were both a little afraid because it was kinda dark and quiet. So we ran up like 5 flights of stairs and shouted "is everything okay up here??" We didn't get an answer so we booked it down like 7 more flights of stairs trying to get away from the area. Well once we got down so many flights we heard faint yelling. I climbed back up a couple flights but it was taking so long, and somehow I had lost my gun. Keith told me it was Paul's voice (my other brother) and then I heard him loud and clear, screaming his own name at the top of his lungs. He apparently had been trapped in a room with the spider, and I just kept imagining all the things the spider could be doing to him to get him to scream like that. I tried to get to him as fast as I could but my legs didn't seem to want to work, so I was climbing the stairs using only my arms. I got so worked up that I woke up. That was about 20 minutes ago.
First off, I usually remember at least 75% of the dreams I have. When I was young I kept various dream journals, and I have a total of about 300 dreams written down for a couple years. Doing the journaling taught me that when I first wake up, I must think about what I was dreaming or else I'll forget. If I make it the first thing I think about, I'll remember.
Now when I got to college, that all changed. I was partying, studying, whatever, to all hours and then waking up early, so I would think about how tired I was and I barely remembered anything.
After college, when I started working in the sleep field, I started remembering dreams more again. I've always had some degree of nightmares, but in the past year they've definitely seen an increase. In the past two or three months there has been an even bigger increase. Once I had two separate nightmares in one night. That was not fun.
Oh by the way, a nightmare is a dream that forces the dreamer awake, and the dreamer must feel some degree of fear or anxiety in relation to the dream. Not all "scary" dreams are nightmares, and not all nightmares are related to "scary" content. It's just about the way you feel when you wake.
So...I've started rambling. Okay most people who experience nightmares have some degree of stress in their lives or they've had a trauma in the past. Neither one applies to me. I am pretty much never stressed, and have had a relatively pain free existence. One theory that could apply to me is the eating before sleeping thing. Since I work nights, my dinner schedule is very fucked up. Yesterday, even though I didn't work at all, I didn't get hungry for breakfast until 2pm. I ate lunch at around 5:30 and dinner before I went to bed, at about 12:30am. Some people think the metabolizing of food makes your brain work harder at night, causing more nightmares. Plus I ate cheddar cheese, and a recent study suggests that strong cheese is basically like weed for dreams. (If you want to attempt this, go find some Stilton and eat it before bed.)
I'm gonna try to pare down what I eat before bed, but it may be a little difficult, since on the days I work I have to eat dinner around 1am. Sigh. At least I usually get a full night's (or day's) sleep....
I was in a giant house with my brothers and some other people. Like a GIANT house. There were tons of flights of stairs leading to different landings. We were on a mission (I'm always on a crazy mission in my dreams). This time I had a special stun gun, and I was looking for a giant spider that liked to torture people. Since this house had so many rooms, my brothers and I were basically shouting and stomping around to see if we could raise enough commotion for the spider to come out and attack so we could stun it (and maybe kill it or imprison it...my dream thinking didn't get that far).
So I was running up some stairs with my brother Keith, and we were both a little afraid because it was kinda dark and quiet. So we ran up like 5 flights of stairs and shouted "is everything okay up here??" We didn't get an answer so we booked it down like 7 more flights of stairs trying to get away from the area. Well once we got down so many flights we heard faint yelling. I climbed back up a couple flights but it was taking so long, and somehow I had lost my gun. Keith told me it was Paul's voice (my other brother) and then I heard him loud and clear, screaming his own name at the top of his lungs. He apparently had been trapped in a room with the spider, and I just kept imagining all the things the spider could be doing to him to get him to scream like that. I tried to get to him as fast as I could but my legs didn't seem to want to work, so I was climbing the stairs using only my arms. I got so worked up that I woke up. That was about 20 minutes ago.
First off, I usually remember at least 75% of the dreams I have. When I was young I kept various dream journals, and I have a total of about 300 dreams written down for a couple years. Doing the journaling taught me that when I first wake up, I must think about what I was dreaming or else I'll forget. If I make it the first thing I think about, I'll remember.
Now when I got to college, that all changed. I was partying, studying, whatever, to all hours and then waking up early, so I would think about how tired I was and I barely remembered anything.
After college, when I started working in the sleep field, I started remembering dreams more again. I've always had some degree of nightmares, but in the past year they've definitely seen an increase. In the past two or three months there has been an even bigger increase. Once I had two separate nightmares in one night. That was not fun.
Oh by the way, a nightmare is a dream that forces the dreamer awake, and the dreamer must feel some degree of fear or anxiety in relation to the dream. Not all "scary" dreams are nightmares, and not all nightmares are related to "scary" content. It's just about the way you feel when you wake.
So...I've started rambling. Okay most people who experience nightmares have some degree of stress in their lives or they've had a trauma in the past. Neither one applies to me. I am pretty much never stressed, and have had a relatively pain free existence. One theory that could apply to me is the eating before sleeping thing. Since I work nights, my dinner schedule is very fucked up. Yesterday, even though I didn't work at all, I didn't get hungry for breakfast until 2pm. I ate lunch at around 5:30 and dinner before I went to bed, at about 12:30am. Some people think the metabolizing of food makes your brain work harder at night, causing more nightmares. Plus I ate cheddar cheese, and a recent study suggests that strong cheese is basically like weed for dreams. (If you want to attempt this, go find some Stilton and eat it before bed.)
I'm gonna try to pare down what I eat before bed, but it may be a little difficult, since on the days I work I have to eat dinner around 1am. Sigh. At least I usually get a full night's (or day's) sleep....
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