Before all my dreams were lucid (technically I sometimes have waking dreams/sleep paralysis or hallucinations that are not lucid), the one* dream I can recall was actually a lucid dream punning on nightmare, in which a nightmare was a mare of the night. It was also an out-of-body experience. I can't have been more than 8. The notable thing about it wasn't the pun, but the colours, light and texture of everything that was not part of "reality". That is: the mare, its rider, and the forest from which it emerged which was like the densest, most unmolested areas along the Yarra, but with a mercury/petrol rainbow quality; reality being the vestibule and my father drinking tea on the steps, talking to my mother (as I discovered when I awoke after the dream and got up).

One of the best lucid dreams I've had that might be describable as a nightmare (but was a fascinating, if extremely painful, rather than frightening a experience) was one in which I was eaten alive by a panther---though I survived long enough to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, but died en route due to bleeding to death. Blood loss (from my experience) is a far worse sensation than extreme pain, so the ambulance part was worse. Luckily I didn't take long to die, especially as at some point I fell out of the ambulance while it was driving.

*Technically I can also recall a few dreams off the top of my head when I've fallen out of bed, or been flying around in a combination of model train and A-10 Cuba environments, but it is the only notable one.

There was a time when I was very lucid and it was fun.  I could also "sniff out" a nightmare before it got bad and either changed the plot or switched channels altogether.

In recent years I am generally so tired that I sleep like a log and I don't remember any of my dreams.  But it's safe to assume that it's nothing terrible or I'd have woken up.

When I was younger I had dreadful nightmares (which my parents are mostly to blame for).  As I got older I found out what helped me to not have nightmares.  I.e. Sleeping in pitch black with all doors and curtains closes.  No nightlight, no TV light, no corridor light, no street light, no light as all. Sleeping flat on my tummy and face down on the pillow.  Also lifestyle changes.  Eating healthy, light and not very late helps enormously.  Investing in a good bed, good bedding and a good pillow (helps more than you can imagine).  Working out regularly also helps.

Some of my worst experiences were related to sleep paralysis, or disorientation.  I remember one time when I woke up (or thought I woke up just sat in the middle of the bed not knowing which side was which and where to put my head or my feet (doesn't sound scary but it was).  Also there was a time when I may or may not have been sleep-walking.  I would wake up in different places where I didn't remember getting up and walking to during the night.  Haven't had any of these in recent years though.  The above changes helpes.  The lucid dreaming seems to have gone too though which I miss, though perhaps it could be that I just don't remember any of my dreams.

After reading all that... I am going back to my old insanity of thinking that sleep is just not worth it.  Foolz, remember my sleep deprevation period?

I think it was better than the always waking up/ not sleeping thing I have now.

Dreams are endlessly fascinating to me, so many stories and derived meanings.

Every time I have slept my entire life, I have dreampt. They are always complete realistic, just as real as any waking experience.

A lot of folks talk about deraming in colour as if it is extrodinary, but all my dreams are in colour, I mean, they look just like what I see now as I type (though the lighting is not as good, bad graphics card I guess).

SupremeAC said:

AlGG was normal.  I remember thinking I was expecting him to look different.  He lived in a very small house where it was impossible to stand up in any of the rooms.  

When did you come to my house? Privacy, much?

I had a dream that freaked me out for days. I was about 15 at the time and it was like that episode of Star Trek TNG where Picard lived an entire lifetime in the dream then woke up to find no time had passed. I fell in love, I had grandkids, we lived in a house very much like the house where Howl grew up in Howl's Moving Castle. Then I woke up to find out it was all a dream. But the feeling of living 70 years inside a dream, that never left me, and the feeling of being loved by my girl, that loss was the saddest.

The only other real dream of note is when I was on a world where Thundercats and Transformers crossed over. I even rode inside Optimus Prime. It was so fucking cool!

One of my favourite films of all time which I raved about endlessly and recommended to all my friends (and gifted the DVD to many of them) and everyone I know is Richard Linklater's "Waking Life".  It's about this guy who keeps waking up within a dream ... within a dream ... ad infinitum.  And keeps getting visited by all kinds of characters.  I guess it's about dreams and if or how they relate to what we understand as our waking life.  Also a bit of a crash course in philosophy.  You all should make a point of watching it at least once!

bugsonglass said:

One of my favourite films of all time which I raved about endlessly and recommended to all my friends (and gifted the DVD to many of them) and everyone I know is Richard Linklater's "Waking Life".  It's about this guy who keeps waking up within a dream ... within a dream ... ad infinitum.  And keeps getting visited by all kinds of characters.  I guess it's about dreams and if or how they relate to what we understand as our waking life.  Also a bit of a crash course in philosophy.  You all should make a point of watching it at least once!

The philosophy annoyed the hell out of me; seemed like a very shallow collection of references, but I still really like that film. Looks great, and has a wonderful flow to it. Have you seen A Scanner Darkly? Linklater rotoscoping Dick.

I'm thinking sleeping pills. But everyone who knows me over the years has been really against me going that path.

I have an addictive personality and am generally depressed.

With what we are going through, my wife got the advice to take sleeping pills for a while herself.  She didn't do it, because we don't like taking pills, but the doctor's explanation was down the line of: taking them for 3 weeks is ok, but don't start taking them every night for long periods of time, because you will get addicted.