Nightmare

- etymology

  Quote

late 13c., "an evil spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus," from O.E. mare "incubus," from mera, mære, from P.Gmc. *maron "goblin," from PIE *mora- "incubus," from base *mer- "to rub away, harm, seize" (cf. first element in O.Ir. Morrigain "demoness of the corpses," lit. "queen of the nightmare," also Bulg., Serb., Pol. mora "incubus;" Fr. cauchemar, with first element is from O.Fr. caucher "to trample"). Meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of "any bad dream" first recorded 1829; that of "very distressing experience" is from 1831.

People have said it's odd... but I kinda enjoy the nightmares I have

ps... dig the new icon ;)

that painting also refers to sleep paralysis I think

Most disturbing dream I ever had consisted of a string of hair lifting an impossibly huge concrete object, which I remember being accompanied by an ear piercingly high pitched screech. But I was young and that could be a mix of dream memories that I've mixed up. Couldn't explain why it was as unnerving as it was, but I guess dreams are like that.

A similar nightmare that I had as a young kid consisted of an endless procession of giant turds (like, mountain sized turds...) floating through space accompanied by a loud low pitched note sung by what sounded like a legion of manly monks. Yep. A vision of the future perhaps.

It's a wonder i didn't get into modern art as a kid. My dreams as an adult are far less abstract and grotesque.

i have that demon on the chest thing pretty often

was scary in the beginning but im getting used to it and start enjoying the mindfuck

tip to trigger it: wake up at 4-5 in the morning, drink a liter of coffee and then go back to sleep

enjoy the aliens/ghosts/demons entering the room

my scariest nightmares are about murdering people and then getting chased by the police or other killers

or

the moon crashing into the earth, pure agony.

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:03 PM, Berk said:

that painting also refers to sleep paralysis I think

Yes. I actually had this happen to me a couple months ago. I woke up and couldn't move my body and felt a 'presence' sitting on my chest and it was whispering at me. Luckily, I knew that this was a common human experience and I was able to calm myself while it was happening, but for fuck's sake... that shit is ridiculous. I guess it's just something that happens when your mind gets caught in between wake ( ) and sleep. I had it happen another time a few years ago, but I woke up on my side, and the whisper was in one of my ears and I saw black smoke wash across my face. The whole time I was experiencing it I was trying to shout at my girlfriend to help, but I couldn't move anything, not even my vocal chords. Fuck all that.

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:46 PM, Ranky Redlof said:

the moon crashing into the earth, pure agony.

This is also one of my recurring nightmares. *high five*

Though it hasn't happened in a few years. The older I get, the more philosophical and existential my nightmares get. For instance, not long ago in my dream, there was a cast of characters and I wasn't part of it. It was like watching a movie. Then, suddenly all of the characters in my dream became aware of me and started pleading with me not to wake up because I would be killing them all. That one fucked with my head for a while.

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:30 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Most disturbing dream I ever had consisted of a string of hair lifting an impossibly huge concrete object, which I remember being accompanied by an ear piercingly high pitched screech.

i always have disturbing dreams like this when i'm sick, mostly when i have the flu or something. like, weird spacial distortions, something will look huge but i can place it between my fingers, everything is shiny and white, etc.. fucking strange stuff.

but yeah as for nightmares, mine are mostly psychological. i'm not scared at all by physical dangers in dreams anymore. it becomes a fun game, like an fps or something, lol.

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:51 PM, wake said:

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:03 PM, Berk said:

that painting also refers to sleep paralysis I think

Yes. I actually had this happen to me a couple months ago. I woke up and couldn't move my body and felt a 'presence' sitting on my chest and it was whispering at me. Luckily, I knew that this was a common human experience and I was able to calm myself while it was happening, but for fuck's sake... that shit is ridiculous. I guess it's just something that happens when your mind gets caught in between wake ( ) and sleep. I had it happen another time a few years ago, but I woke up on my side, and the whisper was in one of my ears and I saw black smoke wash across my face. The whole time I was experiencing it I was trying to shout at my girlfriend to help, but I couldn't move anything, not even my vocal chords. Fuck all that.

Had it once, a few years back or something. It's a very frightening experience yeah, I didn't really know anything about it yet so that made it even more scary. There weren't any voices but I also felt like there was a presence in my room, near the door or something, not really close to me yet. I wanted to shout, but yeah even the vocal cords were paralyzed. Then I "woke up" but realized I was awake all the time.

Oh yeah, and I was trying to stand up during that shit but I could only get myself to sit up in bed.

I wonder why people always feel like there's a presence that's kind of fascinating really.

Was hoping for one of troons nightmares, to convince me he is actually some sort of human.

Usually the only nightmares I have are when I somehow wake up and open my eyes but I'm still dreaming, what I see in my room is used as fodder for my visual cortex. A coat draped over a chair becomes a hideous boogeyman. I've had a few very lucid experiences in pure dream world as well that were somewhat terrifying, but had a story behind it and involved running or fighting. Sleep paralysis hallucinations are by far the most pure form of terror I have had the pleasure of experience with.

  On 3/27/2011 at 12:58 PM, ghOsty said:

People have said it's odd... but I kinda enjoy the nightmares I have

me too. although I do have the occasional nightmare that's genuinely disturbing.

My most disturbing nightmare was actually fueled by Kafka. You know that scene in 'the trial' where Josef K. is inside the shady/dim cathedral, minimalistic scene but very surreal. I read this passage just before falling asleep and envisioned that exact setting, only that additionally voices started to circulate all around me whispering (increasing in volume), to the point where I could actually feel physical pressure on my body from it.

Sounds simple and boring but I've never been so terrified in my entire life, literally. I woke up with screaming, which had never happened before (and since) as well.

Made me love Kafka even more.

At least once a year I have a dream about the end of the world, and although they're always scary, I love them! They're often epic (but not always, one of them was very sudden) and usually will either involve religious symbolism (demons, or more commonly, global flooding, one of them had a "great holy book" that I had to find which was basically the REAL bible, lol) or nuclear war. Most of them are at least a little bit strange, as dreams are, but of of my favourites felt kinda of like... if Alejandro Jorodowsky directed a Disney film or something.

Yea Troon, name one of your nightmares.

I've had several. Don't know where to start. At the time I hate them, but I'd be okay with having them more often. They're more memorable, and usually make me aware I am dreaming, which will lead to a lucid dream.

Since I have had several, a recent one I had was recurring. I'd wake up from a semi-creepy dream, but I'd still be dreaming. I'd reach for my bed side lamp, but it wouldn't turn on. I'd walk up stairs, flicking every light along the way but the power was out. I felt a presence with me, and it was a negative feeling. Never saw what it was, it'd come after me, I assumed it would stab me, and I'd wake up.

After having this dream 3-5 times, I wrote it down in detail. Next time I had it, I had myself wake up before I even left to walk up stairs. Next time after that, turned it into a semi-lucid dream. Haven't had it since.

i had a constantly recurring dream as a child of two dark spheres, one large, one smaller (both incomprehensibly massive though). one could not see them but from the corner of one's eye. they would roll along and emanating from them would be a deep, low, pulsating sound that corresponded somehow to the amplification of the sound of blood flowing through my veins. sometimes i see flashes of them still, briefly when I shut my eyes and the sound has haunted me my entire life.

  On 3/28/2011 at 4:04 AM, thepilot said:

i had a constantly recurring dream as a child of two dark spheres, one large, one smaller (both incomprehensibly massive though). one could not see them but from the corner of one's eye. they would roll along and emanating from them would be a deep, low, pulsating sound that corresponded somehow to the amplification of the sound of blood flowing through my veins. sometimes i see flashes of them still, briefly when I shut my eyes and the sound has haunted me my entire life.

I got chills and my eyes welled up from reading this.

  On 3/28/2011 at 4:04 AM, thepilot said:

i had a constantly recurring dream as a child of two dark spheres, one large, one smaller (both incomprehensibly massive though). one could not see them but from the corner of one's eye. they would roll along and emanating from them would be a deep, low, pulsating sound that corresponded somehow to the amplification of the sound of blood flowing through my veins. sometimes i see flashes of them still, briefly when I shut my eyes and the sound has haunted me my entire life.

.wav file please

  On 3/28/2011 at 4:04 AM, thepilot said:

i had a constantly recurring dream as a child of two dark spheres, one large, one smaller (both incomprehensibly massive though). one could not see them but from the corner of one's eye. they would roll along and emanating from them would be a deep, low, pulsating sound that corresponded somehow to the amplification of the sound of blood flowing through my veins. sometimes i see flashes of them still, briefly when I shut my eyes and the sound has haunted me my entire life.

  On 3/27/2011 at 2:22 PM, modey said:

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:30 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Most disturbing dream I ever had consisted of a string of hair lifting an impossibly huge concrete object, which I remember being accompanied by an ear piercingly high pitched screech.

i always have disturbing dreams like this when i'm sick, mostly when i have the flu or something. like, weird spacial distortions, something will look huge but i can place it between my fingers, everything is shiny and white, etc.. fucking strange stuff.

similar toy my scariest dream. I had it when i was around 6 and I was having a terrible fever. I had a dream that I was as small as an ant and i was collecting small blades of grass. Then I saw my father and somehow he was holding a blade of grass which was somehow hellishly large, and the whole dream had this quiet claustrophobic hiss to it.

  On 3/28/2011 at 9:13 AM, Salvatorin said:

  On 3/27/2011 at 2:22 PM, modey said:

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:30 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Most disturbing dream I ever had consisted of a string of hair lifting an impossibly huge concrete object, which I remember being accompanied by an ear piercingly high pitched screech.

i always have disturbing dreams like this when i'm sick, mostly when i have the flu or something. like, weird spacial distortions, something will look huge but i can place it between my fingers, everything is shiny and white, etc.. fucking strange stuff.

similar toy my scariest dream. I had it when i was around 6 and I was having a terrible fever. I had a dream that I was as small as an ant and i was collecting small blades of grass. Then I saw my father and somehow he was holding a blade of grass which was somehow hellishly large, and the whole dream had this quiet claustrophobic hiss to it.

This seems to be a very common type of nightmare. My friend also had a recurring dream of huge concrete blocks being carried along by really thin string accompanied by an unpleasant reedy sound. WTF. Why is it so disturbing and so universal?

The closest thing I get to nightmares these days are mildly embarrassing or unpleasant scenarios involving disputes with friends. I find if nothing much is going on in my real life my dreams become far more vivid, but otherwise they tend to be pretty mundane. I miss having really elaborate and strange dreams, but I don't miss the days that accompany them.

As a kid I had a recurring nightmare where there was an underground greenhouse in the sewers in front of my house. I look out my window to see some village-of-the-damned style blond children descending into the sewers through the manhole. So I venture outside and follow them down. There are plants everywhere despite the lack of sunlight, some of them encased in giant glass containers. I wander a while through vines and dense undergrowth. Then suddenly this creepy animate scarecrow man with long stringy mop-like hair appears, hanging upside down from the ceiling. He has zippers for teeth. He hisses at me and then murders me. He does it with something sharp, and I swear I can actually feel it jabbing into me (not something I recall happening in any other dream). One time after he killed me I remained awake. He dragged my corpse out of the sewer, into my house, into the kitchen and over to the cat's food dish. Then he began eating the cat food and I woke up. That was the last I ever saw of him. Fucking subconscious...

Most of my nightmares consist of me being chased by an unseen adversary... but I can usually fly and they never catch me, so I'm not even sure that qualifies as a nightmare. Come to think of it those are probably my favorite dreams. Flying is awesome.

  On 3/28/2011 at 11:13 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

  On 3/28/2011 at 9:13 AM, Salvatorin said:

  On 3/27/2011 at 2:22 PM, modey said:

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:30 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Most disturbing dream I ever had consisted of a string of hair lifting an impossibly huge concrete object, which I remember being accompanied by an ear piercingly high pitched screech.

i always have disturbing dreams like this when i'm sick, mostly when i have the flu or something. like, weird spacial distortions, something will look huge but i can place it between my fingers, everything is shiny and white, etc.. fucking strange stuff.

similar toy my scariest dream. I had it when i was around 6 and I was having a terrible fever. I had a dream that I was as small as an ant and i was collecting small blades of grass. Then I saw my father and somehow he was holding a blade of grass which was somehow hellishly large, and the whole dream had this quiet claustrophobic hiss to it.

 

This seems to be a very common type of nightmare. My friend also had a recurring dream of huge concrete blocks being carried along by really thin string accompanied by an unpleasant reedy sound. WTF. Why is it so disturbing and so universal?

thepilot's, zephyr_nova's, and your friend's dreams all remind me of the book house of leaves, when he hears the walls shifting and whatnot.

  On 3/28/2011 at 4:04 AM, thepilot said:

i had a constantly recurring dream as a child of two dark spheres, one large, one smaller (both incomprehensibly massive though). one could not see them but from the corner of one's eye. they would roll along and emanating from them would be a deep, low, pulsating sound that corresponded somehow to the amplification of the sound of blood flowing through my veins. sometimes i see flashes of them still, briefly when I shut my eyes and the sound has haunted me my entire life.

dude, you're not alone with that sort of physical/aural cue. I had a recurring nightmare as a child of a moon-faced man stalking me (for the sake of tl;dr I won't go further), and this nightmare was always preceded by a rhythmic thumping sound, which I assumed was my heartbeat. So I trained myself to wake up when I heard the thudding, before the dream actually began! Worked like a charm, and eventually the dreams stopped recurring.

We're all agreed here. My most vivid childhood nightmare involved unfathomably huge flesh-like pillows. But so tightly packed that they were almost concrete.

Maybe we were looking at the inside of our eyelids with no frame of perspective?

I've also had that sleep-paralysis/hallucination nightmare mentioned earlier. It's hard to remember exactly, but an object in my darkened room became a snake. It wasn't a belt, it was something on my wall, because it came wriggling and moving across the floor towards me. I was never truly scared though, as I knew there was no chance of there being a snake in my room, and lay there rather entertained trying to control it until I got bored and fell back to sleep.

  On 3/27/2011 at 1:51 PM, wake said:

Though it hasn't happened in a few years. The older I get, the more philosophical and existential my nightmares get. For instance, not long ago in my dream, there was a cast of characters and I wasn't part of it. It was like watching a movie. Then, suddenly all of the characters in my dream became aware of me and started pleading with me not to wake up because I would be killing them all. That one fucked with my head for a while.

I love this. Ever seen The Nines with Ryan Reynolds? It's terrible. Horrible. Ryan Reynolds essentially plays God, but it has exactly the same dream-world-creation theory to it.