Anatomy of Your Nightmare

i have recurring nightmares that my teeth are falling out and i am trying to push them back into my gums as they come out. my mind is probably reminding me that i didn't get in my whole two or more minutes before i went to sleep.

Sent by kate | 2:26 PM | 10-30-2007

My worst nightmare occured when I was 5 years old, I had a dream I was brought to my parents door in a dripping paper lunch sack.

Sent by Anna | 3:11 PM | 10-30-2007

when i was young (between 6 and 9 years of age) i had a recurring nightmare that my older brother and sister pushed me out of a rowboat we were in and tried to row over me.

Sent by martha | 3:11 PM | 10-30-2007

The most frightening nightmares to me are not the "weird" ones that seem too bizarre to be true, but the ones that are close to reality but "off" somehow -- that is, I am married to someone other than my husband, or something has happened/is happening to my kids.

I have done a lot of work with my dreams and also have done a lot of dream journeying (going into a dream state while waking). I don't seem to have as many nightmares as your guest is reporting most people have, even when I keep a journal.

Sent by Audrey Kalman | 3:12 PM | 10-30-2007

My bad dreams change with time but the theme tends to be the same--I'm doing something terribly wrong.

When I was a student, bad dreams involved skipping important exams or forgetting homework. Early in my career, they were most likely to be about getting fired for making a mistake or showing up at work naked. These days, bad dreams involve my husband and children coming to harm. My most recent mightmare had me stepping out of my moving car and leaving my two children in the back seat without a driver.

I always wake up relieved that it was "just a dream" but even now, I still feel residual guilt when I think of how, in my dream, I left my small children to their fate.

Sent by Jennifer Walsh | 3:18 PM | 10-30-2007

I am 64 years old, and I can attest to you that I have NEVER been awakened by a nightmare. I have had a FEW unpleasant dreams in my lifetime but for the most part (almost 100% of the time actually) my dreams, and I dream every night by the way, are pleasant little escapes from reality. And, I look forward to them every night.

Sent by Dennis Sedam (that's just like the car, sedan, but with an "M" | 3:20 PM | 10-30-2007

My worst nightmare entailed me, trapped in a bathroom, with a man who looked just like James Caan trying to get in. He finally broke down the door and stabbed me repeatedly with a knife in the bathtub. I remember the terror vividly and although the James Caan look-alike adds a bit of humor to it, it still remains one of the scariest dreams I can remember!

Sent by Nancy | 3:24 PM | 10-30-2007

A recurring nightmare theme for me is driving in a vehicle that begins losing crucial parts such as the tires or steering wheel, on roads that become spaghetti-narrow or roller-coaster high and twisted. They usually correlate to relationship issues, and I am almost always able to manipulate the dream without crashing the car. Until a recent dream in which I could not save myself or my daughter from plunging into the sea.

It still haunts me and I actually have changed some bad relational habits because of it.

Sent by Kim Garvin | 3:24 PM | 10-30-2007

I used to have nightmares in college about being in an out of control car. It was driving too fast and I could never see where I was going. Once I graduated and married my husband, the nightmares stopped completely.

Sent by Sarah | 3:25 PM | 10-30-2007

I have a recurring night terror averaging once every week or two weeks. Paralyzed in my dream there is a loud Humming and Zooming in and out of focus visually. i'm aware i'm dreaming, but, can't wake myself up... usually i get increasingly vocal... until my wife prods me awake from a distance (i punched her in the face a few months back - felt terrible once awake).

Sent by jess | 3:25 PM | 10-30-2007

my dreams are in color and so real that i sometimes think i'm in another place, perhaps a parallel existence, while i'm dreaming...in trying to accept all this dream "reality" i now believe that my brain must be like a CPU, and that dreams are an attempt to download and resolve the millions of visual stimuli a brain has to process ...any thoughts about whether or not this hypothesis exists in science?

Sent by carla kuhn | 3:26 PM | 10-30-2007

My worst nightmare is that I'm awake and I can hear what's going on around me but unable to move or speak. It is possible for your mind to be away while your body continues sleeping.

Sent by Heidy Pujols | 3:27 PM | 10-30-2007

I used to have a recurring dream (it has been a decade or more) that I was lying on the edge of a cliff about to fall off. My response was to roll away from the cliff, which always ended up being the wrong direction (in real life) and I would end up falling off of the bed. I trained myself to just stay put in the dream and stopped falling out of bed. On a dise note I am pretty sure I don't have nightmares, and I think I don't even dream anymore...at least not that I remember.

Sent by Rob | 3:28 PM | 10-30-2007

My worst night terrors have a lot to do with sound. The sky reverberates a deep grumbling that grows and fills up everything around me. Just thinking about it makes my heart rate speed up. I haven't had a night terror in years, but the common thread was that I always knew they were about to happen and was unable to rouse myself. Would be lying right next to my husband aching for him to somehow hear me, to know that I was desperate to wake up.

I also have teeth dreams, they become loose and my jaw starts grinding down on them causing them to go crooked or sideways and jam up into my gums.

Sent by Raina | 3:29 PM | 10-30-2007

When I was about nine, in 1961, I dreamt that a man who spoke only in snores was chasing me. I tried controlling this by picturing Roger Maris hitting a home run. He did, and when the ball landed in the lower right field stands at Yankee Stadium there was the man again, speaking only in snores. I woke up, and realized that the snores were from my father sleeping in the next room. I wonder what Freud (and your guest) would say about that.

Sent by Larry Pryluck | 3:30 PM | 10-30-2007

I had my worst night mere when i was about 14, i dreamt that my mother had died but her ghost followed me around. at first it wasn't that bad because she was still there and could help me, but then i tried to hug her and went right through her. it was the worst feeling ever, i woke up sobbing.

Sent by Ruth Huge | 3:30 PM | 10-30-2007

My mother died a horrible death from a brain tumor when I was 16, and I was one of her primary caregivers. Her illness was so severe that she resembled more of a skelton than a human being at the time of her death. After my mother's death, I dreamed I was on a train, about to go into my compartment when the door opened and there stood my mother, as a skeleton, who said to me, "Come in, Sharon, we've been waiting for you." My father had died when I was 9, and he too was in the compartment waiting for me. After that, I was afraid to fall asleep at night for fear of having that dream again. It was simply the most awful dream of my life, and it happened 40 years ago. It still scares me.

Sent by Sharon | 3:31 PM | 10-30-2007

Yes, I have the loose-teeth dream too. It occurred very frequently twenty years ago when I was an undergraduate. I've heard a bunch of "interpretations" of this common dream. I wonder if it has something to do with the childhood experience of actually losing teeth.

Sent by steve | 3:33 PM | 10-30-2007

I have had a recurring nightmare since childhood (I'm now in my 40's), which began with my having just killed someone using a gun, and am now holding the literal "smoking gun", which I threw in a river and ran away as my pursuers drew near. In the years since then, I have had this dream again and again, but each time, the story has gone forward in time. For instance, after throwing the gun in the river, the dream was pretty mellow for a while, as I had "gotten away with it", but years later, the "investigation" led to the river being dragged, and the gun found, and "they" were back on my tail...a few years ago, I was once again almost caught, and have had to move in the dream in order to avoid this. So far, I am still "on the lam", but the interesting thing about this dream to me is that I get older in the dream, and so does everyone else, and time seems to progress normally. It feels like some sort of parallel existence - one in which I live a life of evading capture. (A few times I've even considered turning myself in just to end it - the dream that is)

Sent by atom | 3:33 PM | 10-30-2007

I recently read an article talking about how dreams seem to be working out and sorting the events of the day so that we can learn, become inspired, explore possibilities ... in esssence, play and learn!

Sent by Deborrah Szuch | 3:33 PM | 10-30-2007

When I have a nightmere dream it turns our to be true. I have dreamed of a person dieing and usually 8 wks to the day they died. What does this dream state mean?? This happened at least 10 times in my life.

Sent by Morgan | 3:35 PM | 10-30-2007

What causes dreams ro move to nightmares to seizures? many of the dreams/nightmares are about old militray experiences and danger that we never acknowledge then - had to be brave you know -but are experiencing it now 40 years later. Don't remember the seizures.

Sent by Harry Stonelake | 3:36 PM | 10-30-2007

I usually have nightmares that I am being followed or attacked by men with guns.

Sent by John | 3:42 PM | 10-30-2007

"Teeth are our means of incorporating the outer world, of making what is out there in here. Naturally, then, teeth symbolize our power in the world, our potency. Losing our teeth means that we fear losing our ability to be in the world effectively."

hm. i'll have to read more about it.

Sent by kate | 3:59 PM | 10-30-2007

I have had night terrors for most of my life. I would wake in the middle of the night and strip my bed down looking for the spider or snake or rat that I could swear was in bed with me. I spent a night in a sleep disorder clinic and was diagnosed with REM Sleep Disorder. I was prescribed a 0.5mg of Klonopin before bed and that has completely cured my problem. If I let my prescription expire, the night terrors return and then go away again when I have my klonopin back. I would suggest it to anyone with persistent night terrors.

Sent by Mike in Vegas | 5:16 PM | 10-30-2007

I have a recurring nightmare that while I am sleeping, someone, usually my Mom and Dad, comes into my house and rearranges all of my furniture. The worst part of this dream is that usually I know what is happening, but I cannot wake up in the dream and stop them. When I wake up and everything is different, I scream and scream and scream. Every time I have this dream the house I live in is a little bit different, and sometimes the rearranging is preceded by a warm-fuzzy dream of really liking my house, even though sometimes it is composed of drafty bits of old apartments I've lived in. Knowing that I can never return to the house that I liked so much is what makes me scream -- that, and the frustrated helplessness to prevent people from rearranging my furniture.

Sent by Rachel N H | 5:52 PM | 10-30-2007

An adult nightmare I've had often is being in an elevator and realizing I forgot to push the correct button and trying to push it after the elevator starts moving. This causes the elevator to plummet very realistically. I always wake up before it hits the bottom and once in a while I can stop it by hitting another button. I tend to have this one a lot when work is stressing me out.

I often have a dream about being in a huge house (never one from my waking life, but always one that feels familiar in the dream) and having to decide how I am going to decorate each room or which room I am going to use or sleep in. But somehow no room is "quite right"

I dream a lot and could go on all day about various pleasant as well as unpleasant and just plain frustrating dreams.

Sent by Erica | 6:42 PM | 10-30-2007

I recently had a nightmare that I agreed to get a single tatoo with a friend (I don't actually have any) and next thing I know, my whole body was covered in various tatoos - my ear lobes, neck, hands, chest, etc. Because I am in a corporate leadership position in real life, I began to panic in my dream - thinking that I would never work again in my job! I literally woke up screaming.

I am 28, female and from Phoenix, AZ.

Sent by Brooke | 7:01 PM | 10-30-2007

My husband has a theory that our dreams are simply our brain running a "de-frag" sequence, similar to a PC. He feels that explains the incorporation of recent memories and the random.

Sent by Brooke | 7:06 PM | 10-30-2007

My worst nightmare: I walked out of my office and walked to my car, and I saw my manager left the office after me and walked up to me. "Did you forget something?" I asked. "Show me your hands" he said. He took my hands behind my back and tied them together with one of those self-locking pieces of plastic. Then he slammed my face down on the windshield of the car. "Why did you miss your deadline?" he screamed. He jammed my feet against the car and grabbed me by my head and smashed my face into the windshield over and over. "Why did you miss your deadline? Why did you miss your deadline? Why did you miss your deadline? You deserve to die! People who miss deadlines deserve to die! Why did you miss your deadline?" He kept smashing my face into the windshield so hard and so many times that the broken glass cut my face into a bloody pulp. "You deserve to die! You deserve to die! You deserve to die! You deserve to die! You deserve to die! Why did you miss your deadline? You deserve to die!" He continued smashing my face into the glass until I woke up. (This dream was 9 years after I had the job where the manager told me I was a bad person and deserved to die.)

Sent by walter | 7:30 PM | 10-30-2007

I've only had ONE nightmare where I've woken up with noise(at least to my knowledge). It was the middle of the night and I was in my boxers trying to run away from a BLACK OBJECT that could not be seen but I could feel it. When it caught me it enveloped the back of my neck and I let out a loud audible groan that I could actually hear and it woke me up. Did I actually make a noise? The rest of the night I was intensely paranoid and could not fall asleep again.

Sent by Pablo Valentin | 1:16 AM | 10-31-2007

Has anyone dreamed and witnessed their own death/murder?

I know I have. At the time, I felt merely curious.

Sent by jalila | 10:33 AM | 10-31-2007

My dreams are mostly a pleasant but wierd mix of places, people and events of my life. I remember most of my dreams and even have 2-3 scenarios per night. I even manifest my physical needs in the dreamscape, ie. if I need to urinate I am often in an empty public restroom trying to find a clean urinal but cannot find one, so I end up waking up to pee. My dreams also seem to wear my brain down, I wake up not refreshed but with a heavy head and often find the last hour too much of a load. I wonder if changing hours slept might reduce my dream time and allow for a better feeling in the morning.

Sent by Rick Gregory | 10:54 AM | 10-31-2007

Kate - I have the same loose tooth nightmares! they make that suction noise like when you had a loose tooth as a kid and I too try to push them back in...strange

Sent by jessie | 6:35 PM | 10-31-2007

From about the ages of 10 to 30 I had a recurring dream about exponential growth. Despite being very abstract, it is always intensely frightening. It took three different forms: (1) watching cartesian 3-d space occupied by 1 cubic meter of some unknown substance, then 2, then 10, then 1000, then millions... (2) thinking of parallel universes formed at every second when 1000s of choices happened (someone could turn left or right, a sparrow might fall or not, etc.) then the next second 1000 more alternate futures being formed by the next set of choices, and so forth, (3) simply seeing numbers grow exponentially. In all three cases I had to keep track of these exploding numbers/spaces/realities and I couldn't, which was horrifying. It hasn't returned for years.

Sent by Scott | 5:10 PM | 11-19-2007

I have a recurring nightmare only I don't understand a certain part, that which is that im not asleep when it happens. I'm laying in bed still awake and my mind just kinda...spaces off but my eyes are still open, I can still see things and hear things but my mind is like in a dream already. the nightmare I have is I'm at my mom's funeral and i try to talk about her and stuff and I can't and run out of the funeral home screaming, then as soon as I'm out of the room I run into a bright light and I appear on my roof with people coming up to try to talk to me. and then I always snap back to reality and I'm still awake and haven't gone to sleep yet and then I cant get to sleep and ya....what does that mean? having nightmares when your still awake? it's really starting to freak me out.

Sent by Andrew | 3:10 PM | 11-26-2007

i have a reacurring nightmare it has recently started again im running through a forest and the trees are really scary they are jumping up and down all round me and laughing at me when i stop running the trees stop help

Sent by darren clarke uk | 7:24 AM | 1-26-2008

i have a nightmare im in an elevator it is glass and i cant even stand up i crawl into the corner and panic i cant even breath i go higher and higher and panic more and more

Sent by amy clarke | 7:30 AM | 1-26-2008

I had this dream that a man in a white cap walks into my room and pulls out a gun and shoots me just as I feel the bullet penetrate my body I wake up scared half to death.

Sent by Wilson Gaturu | 2:30 AM | 5-12-2008

Just woke up from a nightmare, sobbing uncontrollably. I had taken a linoleum-cutting utility knife and slit the throat of my beautiful sheltie Savannah!

Upon awakening, I held her (she sleeps on my bed) and told her I was so sorry, all the while sobbing. I think I must have still been partially asleep and I had to get up and out of bed to stop the crying but even now, about 15 minutes later, I can still see it and feel it.

Some of my dreams are hard to get "out of". It takes actually getting up and turning on a light, for instance, to get my mind off of them.

I hate that my dreams are so incredibly intense and vivid-- especially when they're nightmares. And why in the world would we dream about hurting someone we love??

Sent by Mike | 8:33 AM | 5-23-2008

My Mother died almost two years ago, due to many massive strokes and her organs just shut down. She fought a long hard battle for 6 years. My father, my sister and I took care of her during that time period even when she had a feeding tube, oxygen, etc... We kept her home and did everything ourselves. She was paralyzed and we had to feed and change her diapers. Her mind was really bad and she didn't know what was going on during the time. But..... my reason for sending this message is that my sister is having a recurring nightmare EVERY night and wakes up screaming and crying. She and my Mother are floating in water and my Mother is begging her to save her and my sister is touching her fingertips but can't save her. Can you tell me what this nightmare could represent. I would greatly appreciate your input. Thank you

Sent by Donna Gibbs | 7:14 AM | 5-29-2008

I just woke up from my first nightmare in years it seems. This is the first one that has left me distraught. I walked outside my house and their were a bunch of cars in the driveway, i looked in the car and their was a bunch of guns, then i turned around and i wasnt at my house any more i was at someone elses, then a bunch of people came out talking about a bathroom.For some reason i got into my dads truck with some of these people, then i wake up while were on the road and theirs boulders falling everywhere,shortly after the boulders the highway was covered in Lava from a nearby eruption, soon the lava it seemed started coming through the vehicle yet my dad was still driving along like it was nothing, very odd? well its not the end, i guess my mind was trying to wake me up and i thought i was awake, so i stumbled out of bed just to see a dark figure staring at me, i immediatley yelled and then started choking the person, the weird thing was is that it was my brother, then i finally woke up.
I really hope that someone could tell me what the heck all of this means. If you can i would really appreciate it.

Sent by Joe Palmer | 5:41 PM | 7-13-2008

Illogical dreams have meaning: A sand-like spirit approaches me and i attacked it fiercely until we both decided to fuse. Before this could be completed though, someone was beeping in a car, so I ran through the spirit to investigate and then i went for a ride with an old lady i know. We talked about my mom who is still living but apparently died from a liver disease-result of accidental mixing prescription drugs. By chance i happened to call my mom and talk to her 3 days before her death(she told me about her condition), but i didnt spend each of the 3 days with her before she passed and I realized I was wrong for not having done so. It was strange because in the dream i had thought to myself i had become so emotionless after my mothers passing i never cried or felt any emotion ever again(other then the wanting to absorb the ghost. My conclusion: I'm pro-laziness and avoiding all stressful situations. I'm depressed because i havent be able to figure out a solution for working, while i rarely talk to my mom because she moved and we had some arguements about my philosophy and i concluded she was dumb and that i didnt want to be bothered. She moved so we talk on the phone- we used to be close. I only go for drives with my friends, so since it was the old lady who happened babysit me when i was a kid she represented a motherly person. The spirit must have been my mother and we overcame our differences and we were going to have peace/i would be complete. Unfortunately someone else interrfered with my happiness-the story of my life. There could be twists like-by interfering did she really save me? Definately some kind of soulsearching/problem resolution...

Sent by Ethan | 3:29 AM | 9-18-2008