r/Nightmares

I had a weird dream/nightmare last night. It was about my mother being an abusive and negligent parent. And both me, my mom, and my dad were outside my mother had to leave to get something inside the house. When she left my dad told me that my mother is such a horrible person and parent, going on and on. In the middle of his conversation mom comes out, probably already heard the conversation, and talks about how bad her life was in highschool and how much she wanted to be a great parent. She then asks my father to come with her, inside the house, they both go inside and my dad is chuckling, and I am anxious my mother will do something to him. I ask my uncle to spy on them to see if something bad happens and he comes running back saying my mom is literally ripping my father's throat out. I rush back in the house, onto their bed (that's where they were.) and push my mother off my father. That's when the dream ended.

My Mom wasn't abusive, not that I know of at least, and my dad was pretty chill. They got into fights everyday for hours. Dad passed away after an argument, he had a heart attack. (He has had a heart condition since he was little.)

I've had traumatic nightmares for a few years now and they had stopped when i got out of depression, but lately they have been coming back because i'm very stressed and i think a memory is trying to resurface.

I've never really learned to deal with my nightmares, the only, solution let's say, that i've found is to sleep with the lights on or a projector. Sometimes that also fails.

So except for working through the trauma obviously, what can i do to help me get through the night when i go to sleep and if i wake up from a nightmare ?

I'm trying to get back into therapy soon, i know that's the long term solution, but i would love to find something that works when it's happening.

For some context I’m a f32 I had a dream last night. In my dream I was working but we had to get prepared for something the news said to have enough waters and food. Then they said it was about zombies that if you get bitten by them you become them. So in my dream I called my mom and told her to go straight home because at night the zombies where going to come out I got home and she was there my brother was there my dog my moms best friend and her family was there and my dad was there too but my dad past way 4 years ago. So I get home I see them I said hello and gave them a hug after my dad apologized to me how bad of a father he was to me and my mom. Then he goes outside to buy the neighbors house that they were moving. ( they actually moving not just in my dream). And a zombie show up to our street of our house so we ran to the house but my dad stay behind he made it but the neighbor didn’t and I woke up. Also for context I hate zombies I don’t like it my afraid of them I know they aren’t real but I get anxiety when husband play his video games or watches movies about it. Maybe is matters or not, but I’m planning a party and a pastor is giving us a ceremony to blessed our marriage and then we having the reception we didn’t get when me and husband got marry is event is this Saturday August 22nd. Please help I need to know does it have a meaning or I’m just going crazy. Also I’m sorry if didn’t use proper punctuation.

My normal dreams keep turning into nightmares. I will just tell what happens. I start feeling like radiation and my visual starts vibrating, lagging and i see my hands go through every object that was in the dream, even my own body, it feels so unsettling.

I'm really scared, what do you when the dreams felt so real? Like I need a way out of that

I do not have the money to afford treatment for this. They are telling me that I might have to start sleeping in a car outside, or in the basement.

When I go to bed, presumably when I am very tired, I'll get anywhere from 2 to 4 very short dreams, right as I am falling asleep. They won't be nightmares, but they'll depict things I find slightly scary (falling far, a cannon pointed at me, a place I don't want to be in, talking to someone i know isn't there, etc).

Here's the important part: **When I have these, I'll want to wake up, and I'll start breathing (**since it's the only action I can really focus on) in and out, over and over again, until I actually wake up and can move around again, away from whatever is in the dream. Then, I'll casually fall asleep again and have another one.

Taking a break via checking my phone and then going back to sleep usually solves the issue, I've found. After that's over, I just sleep mostly like normal.

I've read and heard that having immediate REM sleep can be caused by sleep deprivation, and last night I had some of these dreams and was definitely staying up pretty late.

I'm mostly just wondering if anyone else experiences this, too.

I usually don’t have dreams, or at least I never remember having any. But last night I had a few dreams, although I can’t remember most of them clearly.

In one of the dreams, I was fighting with someone, and they attacked me on the right side of my chest, slightly below it.

The weirdest part is that ever since I woke up, I’ve been having a lot of pain in that exact same spot. It feels so real that I’m honestly starting to wonder if it was just a dream or if somehow my body experienced something while I was sleeping.

Has anyone else ever experienced something like this?

This might sound weird as fuck, but I’ve had basically the same nightmare on and off since I was around 6. I’m 17 now.
The weird part is that it’s never exactly the same dream. The places, people and whole situations change, but the main thing is always the same:
Something is chasing me. I can’t see it. I just KNOW it’s there, and I have to run.
The first one I remember was when I was about 6. I was at home and my parents left. There was this broken drawer in my room that I wasn’t supposed to open. Of course, being a dumb curious kid, I opened it.
Nothing was there. But I suddenly got this horrible feeling that something was there. I couldn’t see anything, I just felt it.
Then it started chasing me through the city.
I had a few dreams like that as a kid. In one of them, I actually managed to escape to another town with a friend. Whatever it was disappeared, but I still had this feeling that it wasn’t really over.
Then the dreams stopped for a while.
When they came back years later, the locations were completely random. I’ve run from it through places like water parks, forests, cities, places with palm trees, even a morgue. The setting could be literally anything, but somehow I’d always end up running from the same unknown thing.
Sometimes my brain would randomly give it an identity too. Once I somehow knew it was Deadpool, even though I never actually saw Deadpool in the dream and there was literally no connection to him lol.
The last one happened when I was around 16.
I was hanging out with some friends, we got into some stupid situation with an old guy, and he pulled out a gun. We all started running.
Then suddenly my friends just… disappeared.
And I immediately knew:
“Oh fuck. It’s this dream again.”
I ran through the city and eventually got back to my neighborhood. My younger siblings were outside even though it was nighttime, but they completely ignored me when I tried talking to them.
I went home, went to sleep, and then woke up inside the dream.
And I was running again.
Near the end I was running through a forest and finally decided to stop running and actually try to see whatever had been chasing me all these years.
I looked back and for like a split second I saw this insanely bright yellow light.
Then I woke up.
And weirdly enough, I haven’t had the nightmare since.
Has anyone else had something like this? Not necessarily the exact same story, but a nightmare that keeps coming back for YEARS where the locations and details change, but the same basic feeling and “thing” stays the same?
I’m especially curious if anyone else had a recurring nightmare where the thing chasing them was basically invisible, and they just somehow knew it was there.

I need to get this down and out there, just incase. I have had several odd dreams over the years, but guys I’ve really scared me.

This was the early hours of this morning 10/08/26 (uk)
My first dreamed involved a sporting event, it was attended by thousands. There were attackers that dropped into the sports field, there was a huge stage where people were singing, presumably the opening of the event. The attendees were trapped behind the stage, hundreds of people. As the attackers looked elsewhere, people being women started backing away from the stage in their hands and knees and some eventually running.

The attackers noticed and stopped it. I was cowering down, praying, I could feel a gun pointed on me. We were told to stay put, others that left were shot.

I woke up for several minutes, I was really distressed. I went back into the dream, which almost heaved happens and this time we were at a large school with a huge gymnasium. We were aware if planes dropping in with gunmen in the planes.

We were hiding, again hundreds of us. We saw a plane shoot our hiding place from the sky, we then ran and were trapped in the stairs by the ground attackers.

They took the men and left some women, we were taken into a large room where there was food and drinks, and told we were lucky and to stay quiet.

The feeling was terrible. I was petrified in this dream and looking for my stepfather who had been taken.

It was the most lucid, terrifying dream I have ever had. I needed to get it down somewhere incase it is a premonition of a terrorist attack. I can remember faces, names, what people were wearing. The attackers in the ground were called “the forward parties”. They were hidden with scarves on thur faces and wearing military cloths. The plane that I saw that attacked the buildings looked like a grey Russian jet.

I think I have seen something.

Basically these past few weeks I have been having bad dreams, but I have had these bad dreams for years, the last few weeks/months its been a higher amount. I'll have Demons messing with me in my sleep, sleep paralysis, and just disturbing dreams overall. Last night I had a very weird dream. I saw myself in my house with an evil smile expression on my own face. For clarification there were two me's. The first one which I was me being conscious seeing the evil version of myself (the 2nd me being the evil me). Anyways its pretty clear that its me and this figure just starts chasing me. Me thinking fast in my dream I go for the garage and try to open it. I get stuck in between two doors, one to unlock the garage door to then get into the garage and a door that opens to the garage door. This figure is on the other side of this door while I am between the garage door and inside this room. Im able to push the door back with one arm and unlock the garage door with the second arm, I then open the garage and I remember sprinting out and sliding under the garage as its opening. I then stand outside in the dark and look for this figure through the door far away but I dont see it or anything. Really not sure what to make of this dream, but I can strongly say I've always been some sort of target for these demons, jinns, spirits whatever you want to call them. They'll mess with me in my dreams a lot. It doesn't really help that I also believe that my house my contains a lot of these demons that stay in the bathroom corners. The reason I say this is because my cat will randomly late at night go to these bathrooms look into some corner meow a few times then run off scared. I dont know what this dream means but if someone could shed some light onto my dream I would appreciate it.

horror dream i typed as soon as i woke up

started off at the airport as a trip to go out of state to a 4d movie theater. only the airport ended up being part of the experience. it started off as a normal airport but as we went through the terminals things started to get weird. the first weird thing was going up the escalator. i randomly fell off the side of it into a pool of water then immediately spawned back at the bottom, only now i didn’t have any shorts on. my friends grew agitated with me over this and told me i need to focus hard so we don’t miss our flight. finally it comes time to board our plane. as we get on, everything starts getting tinier and more narrow and i finally realize as we get further into the “plane” we are going back in age and becoming toddlers. once we got to the end of the plane we were boarding there was a door. being a toddler i was still fully aware as an adult just in a toddler body. someone opened the door and it led us to something like an amusement park being hosted by all the people there were posed as the airplane staff and now even extra people who just looked like carnies. they all had different activities to do and we all split up and just went with it. i remember being in one room, or enclosed area with a mini pool set up with pool toys. i played in the water feeling both the joy of a toddler but being an adult at the same time. as the dream progressed, so did our ages. the activities changed, and they started to become more sinister. it was like they were using us as an experiment for fun. eventually we had to catch on to the idea that we were in some type of alternate reality where the idea was similar to that of an escape room. people were going crazy and starting to participate in gruesome activities, killing their friends to stay alive. at one point i was with the 3 of my friends and our fourth friend was being suspended in air. we had to use a bible or some sort in latin to try and perform and exorcism on him, everything we needed was present on a table right by us. we ended up doing the spell wrong and enchanting him in some type of way instead and he dropped dead on the floor. by this point we saw blood and dead bodies everywhere. we continued to progress through the dream. we were still children mind you with the adult mindset merged with the child mindset. i remember finding some sort of apparatus that looked like a key so i picked it up and held it close. it made me become invisible. a couple other of people who found this were using it to our advantage sneaking past the plane attendants and carnie looking people. at this point in the dream it seemed we were being hunted for sport. i don’t remember how but i had received a clue that to put a stop to this by going to the lady who had a petting zoo only it was really more like a chicken coop along a wall with one single chicken in each “pen”. i was still a kid so i had the urge to run through the hay and get the chickens riled up. the carnie running that section was happy to have someone there, she could see me even though i had the key that made me invisible so i knew this was a huge clue. she invited me inside her little control room and i caught on to the fact she was trying to kill me in there. i was able to dismember her body by force of my own hands and i threw it out off the balcony near her chicken pens. several members of the crew flocked to her upset and in disbelief. as soon as her body was dismembered it began decaying and become jellylike and a nasty ghoulish color. she was some sort of demon i defeated. i didn’t have time to search the control room since i was now at the top of the list to be hunted since i killed her. i made my escape through the back of the room and ended up outside in a field. it was some sort of attraction where you had to hop from platform to platform and the platforms were shaped like squishy animals like the kind they have at waterparks and you hold onto the top rope and try to make it across to the other side. it was also rotating so it made it super difficult. whoever fell off died instantly. we were now closer to our teen years. at one point a black girl who looked rather witchy ran out with a thin cord with another person at the end of it running side to side very quickly and the cord was cutting people in half. people caught on and began dodging the cord as part of the attraction. i knew there was no way to survive this so i jumped as far as i could along with another group of people into a ditch that was filled with fake snow. we all just rolled trying to keep things as lowkey as possible so we wouldn’t get caught. we eventually rolled up to a building surrounded in tall trees and all of a sudden the four of us fell through a trap door. we weren’t there for long before we realized this was the end. there was no winner. a young man floated above us resembling harry potter. he had a wand and smiled slyly. we realized this was our friend who we performed a spell on in the beginning now coming to seek revenge since we did the exorcism wrong. right before i woke up i realized that there was no 4d movie experience. we were the movie and it was being filmed the whole time. we all died and i woke up.

Twice this week i’ve had crazy scary nightmares; both in completely different scenarios but both ending with my girlfriend getting drunk and basically doing something to force me to end the relationship.

For context, neither I nor my girlfriend are drinkers at all remotely, and she being a devout muslim has never drank before in her life. I have when i was younger and never enjoyed it and sought out a partner who didn’t either, as my mother had drug/alcohol addiction issues.

Also for both of these nightmares they happened when i had a complete nights sleep, woke up in the morning and talked to her on the phone before hanging up and going back to bed, and then immediately having these crazy realistic nightmares. Her calling me irl also woke me up from both nightmares, so i was able to instantly rely what happened so i remember them better

In the first dream we went to a casino-ish place and she got super drunk (once again she’s muslim so she’d never drink or gamble), made a scene and then forced us in the car before driving off the rails, fleeing from police and basically getting us killed by the cops😭 the entire time she was acting incredibly irrational and unlike herself at all and the dream ended with the cops shooting into the car window and her calling me irl

the second dream (which i’m like 20 mins removed from experiencing and still sweaty from) started out as a good dream actually. me and her were on a date in my old college town and were acting all lovey dovey before she got called by some friends and decided to go to like a frat party of some sorts. She went herself and i agreed to meet her there, and when I got there she was shit faced drunk.

She and her friends (none of her friends drink either obviously) kept giving me excuses as to why she drank and i ended up pulling her into a room alone to question wtf is going on and why she’s doing this. She then proceeded to say the most nasty and heinous things to me which i don’t even wanna repeat in here, so incredibly loudly that the whole party stopped and payed attention to us. eventually i was able to get her to a state where we could converse and ask her if she was going to continue drinking and if this was going to be how she acted when she did and she said yes.

in both dreams i had to come to terms with the fact that i had to break up with the love my my life for these actions, actions that are SO unlike her irl and that i could never ever see her doing irl.

I really want to know what this might mean. I feel very secure and happy in this relationship; she’s an amazing girl who’s literally my DREAM woman and wouldn’t think about ending it at all, and i know for sure she’d never do half of the things she’s done in these dreams, so im super curious as to what they could mean about how i maybe perceive her and this.

For the record recently i’ve consumed a lot less cannabis than i had in the past, which has led to me having more intense and hyper realistic dreams that i end up remembering. I also have many more have pleasant and cute dreams involving my girlfriend, about fun times we’ve shared or our future. But these two nightmares have been so gut wrenching and legit terrifying that i really wanna know what someone might make of it. Thanks:)

I still get nightmares till this day. It was an unusual day, I’m still mourning and grieving for my mom who recently passed away in mid May. Two month after his dog dies, under my watch and care. His dogs or normally unleashed and collared less. The day before we was just walking along alki beach with no leash or collar and girls (frenchie and a jack Russell) were well behaved with me watching the sunset and running around on the sidewalk. The next following day is when this nightmare happen. I just got done getting my certification for self development and career success for my future. So I had took some documents to sign forms in the car. I noticed he started being a little tab mean to the jack Russell. And I called her name thinking something was wrong and she was on my shoulder. Wanting me to comfort her. As if she’s scared and has anxiety or so. And when I let her out the car she ran in the big field of grass and I’m always hollering her name because of the cars driving and I didn’t want her accidentally running to the middle of the street. So I’m not really at the right stat of mind because he got out the car and the dogs were already running away from him. And he had some bad energy like there was something wrong like I couldn’t get through him for him to really speak instead giving me short word responses out of his mouth so I assumed he wanted to to take the dogs for a walk. Remind you there collarless and unleash. But when the two dogs are with him there well behaved. So I carried the jack Russell in my arm to the other side while crossing looking both ways. At lake wa. And the area I was at had a sign saying no driving! Cause there are shutting that road off to make it a pedestrian street instead of cars passing through very fastly and not going to speed limit at 25! So yes this area is very busy but I’m aware of it. Because the day before we was at a beach which is famous for tourists and car rides for the scenery. So I’m crossing no cars were coming both ways so I had the frenchie walk with me to the other side while holding the jack Russell. So I let her down cause she wanted to be down. I should’ve held in to her longer. So when she got out down she seem frightened and scared so I called her name and had both my hands out and she was shaking having anxiety ran off to the middle of the street and the guy driving can see her still chooses to speed up and run her over right before my eyes and legs and hand can run to her. It was too late, she coughed out blood and died right before our eyes got watery and shaken from the accident with disbelief. Now it’s my fault as a worthless human to witness this tragedy. while I’m in shocked and scared and hurt and the person that ran her over realizing two minutes after her had hit the dog and killed her. If I can rewind it back I wished I was the one who get hit instead of the dog. The person didn’t say sorry or anything and drove off like nothing had happen and now me and frenchie is both traumatized with this incident. And scared not knowing what going to happen next. I told him sorry in tears crying and hurt torn into pieces. he ignored me. Like you can tell hates me anger mad all the above like he wanted to yell at me or wanted to hurt me but you can tell he actually holding back and not say a word to me beside “put the dog down don’t touch her” i was shocked when he didn’t get violent with me or screaming at me. Instead I got quiet and listen to him knowing I’m scared and not sure what’s going to happen next. He gives me the silent treatment. He got in the car drove off for a min left me and frenchie on the sidewalk and then drove back let us two in and drove me to the nearest bus stop and that was the last time we spoke and seen each other. So I had got in the bus back home. And I once I got him I sent him an apology through messages even thought I verbally told him as I communicated sitting next to him in the car ride to the bus stop that I was sorry! He couldn’t even look at me nothing just hate and anger written all over his face when I speak to him from his expression. When I arrived home I had put a lit candle out and did a prayer for the dog and told Heavenly Father everything that just happen. And also cried off to my dad. I’m hurt torn into pieces wishing this nightmare was me instead of the dog! I miss her the dog I couldn’t sleep at all four a whole week going on the this third week missing her every day dreaming of her. Second day of her passing my eyes are swollen fueling with guilt and pain suffering from the trauma of the incident. I miss her she was the sweetest little dog. Remembering her memories with me that she share her genuine spirit with us. All the catches I have thrown her the ball and her always returning it if not a different ball she found. Her always licking me and wanting to be on my lap and get excited when I say her name! She was sweet active always very sensitive to smells and enjoying car rides and always being alert! I will always have you memories with me in my heart. Oh yeah about the guy. Week 3 going on week 4 won’t speak to me won’t answer my calls nor text. Now I have to move on knowing this is killing me inside. My mother passed away in May that was my biggest heartbreak of a lifetime but yet I put my feelings to side fighting through smile everyday but I’m never going to see my again! But this accident with the dog was literally an accident. I’m still get nightmares of her death! I know he’s never going to speak to again and hate me every ounce he hear my name! He blames me even though he tells me her forgave me his actions shows he never knew me like I never exist! I feel so horrible worthless and shameful and inconsiderate

So first, just some background: I have never had sleep paralysis before, nor have I ever heard of it happening to any of my family members or friends. I read stories about it as a child and was absolutely terrified of it happening to me. I also do not get frequent nightmares and usually don't have any trouble going to bed, even though I typically stay up pretty late.

About two months ago, my family and I were on vacation, and I was up late watching TV before bed. It was mid-summer, so there was no need for me to get up early in the morning or worry about work. I fell asleep while watching my show and "woke up" a few hours later (maybe around 3:00 or 4:00 AM) lying on my back, facing the ceiling. I was in a weird trance and quickly realized that I couldn't move any part of my body. All I could do was look around. Even though I was "awake," part of it still feels like a dream because I cannot recall the details exactly. However, in my paralyzed state, I was somehow able to piece together that I was experiencing sleep paralysis.

Typically, you hear stories about people seeing uncanny figures in the room with them or sometimes even sitting on top of them, making it difficult to breathe. However, I didn't see anything "paranormal" when I first opened my eyes. That changed when I remembered all of the unnerving stories I had heard as a child. Just then, I experienced what I can only describe as an eerie presence in the room. I can't say for sure that I saw a figure, but I can certainly claim that I felt I was not alone.

I began to panic internally because, literally, what could I even do in that situation? I made futile attempts to squirm, turn my body, and move my hands. I even tried talking out loud, but nothing came out of my mouth except a slight, suppressed groaning noise. At some point, I noticed that I had managed to slightly move my right leg toward the edge of the bed. I somehow came up with the idea that if I managed to sweep it fully off the bed, I could gain control of my body again.

This is where things get hazy. After a few seconds of using every bit of strength I had to move my leg just a few centimeters, I lost all memory of the trance. The next thing I knew, I was fully awake and completely shocked by what had happened. I told my family, but I am pretty sure they thought I was making it up.

For a while, I wondered why this would happen out of nowhere, considering it had never occurred before. Before doing any research, one thing I noticed was that I had fallen asleep on my back, whereas I usually sleep on my stomach or my side. I was curious if stress or strange sleep patterns could also contribute, so I looked it up. Sure enough, some of the top listed causes were bad sleeping habits and stress. Additionally, sleeping on your back does apparently increase the chances of experiencing an episode. Since then, I have made sure not to sleep on my back anymore, and I haven't experienced sleep paralysis since. It was an interesting experience, but I don't recommend it.

TL;DR: Pretty sure I got sleep paralysis for the first time on vacation because of bad sleeping habits and falling asleep on my back. I haven't slept on my back since.

my mother passed away this year in February my grandfather in march. in the house hold it is just me (29) little brother (14) grandmother (72) and my mother (died at 52) Grandpa (died at 73 cancer) im basically the one taking care of everyone and providing for them even studying for an IT certification but mostly striving to get cyber security or cloud architecture. but besides all that. its been six months since the passing and today my grandmother had a dream a weird one to me at least. could be her way of getting passed the grief i do not know. but, she told me this dream gave her pain in the chest and in the abdomin. she tells the tale of how my mother was sitting in the corner of the kitchen next to the fridge. she was the same as the day of her death but filthy like oil or grease that gets on you when you work on a car. there was a table on the opposite side of the kitchen a glass round small table and a pot. the pot had strange liquid im not sure the color since im not familiar with the name of it but it was grandmas favorite color. there was a number three written with a fork, then a name or title or something that goes along with LUGRUBE. im not sure that this mean and she wanted to know what it means desperately. i know i wont get a response quick or what not but now i am curious too.. she feels that mom is suffering even in death due to the time alive she had a hard life choosing to take care of my grandma and grandpa basically giving up happiness for them and yeah obvious us the kids which now im an adult and, ok you get the point! we still have their ashes too but idk, my grandfather wanted to be kept in a church in an urn i don't think there is a church that'll do that. idk if its even bad to keep their ashes with us in our household. but again im curious and could use some help or insight. i do appreciate your time and will be responding and updating this post if something transpires have a good day.

Wanna talk tho