Recurring Nightmare

I have two recurring nightmares that I have had as long as I can remember.

The first is that I am in the back seat of a car parked at the top of a hill and the car starts rolling backwards down the hill. At the bottom of the hill is a harbour and the car is on course to plunge straight into the water. For some reason I can't climb into the front and put the brakes on.

In the second nightmare I am in a play and it is opening night. I have no idea what the play is never mind which part
I am playing. Needless to say, I don't know any of my lines.

Neither of these situations relates to anything in my
conscious life.

I have talked about these dreams with various people including someone who studies dreams and all they came up with was some rather clunky symbolism. To me, the origin of dreams remains a complete mystery.

Are either of you taking any particular medication? Sometimes that can be a side effect of certain ones.

Aveline

Are either of you taking any particular medication? Sometimes that can be a side effect of certain ones.

I am taking medication but this is fairly recent, I did mention the nightmares to my consultant but he didn't feel there was a link. The nightmare does precede this too by a number of years.

Interestingly Indigo8, the nightmare is similar to what you have described.
I'm the passenger in a vehicle and sometimes the driver is a person I know, at other times I can't see them. We are on a long country road and the car goes off the road into water, the driver leaves and I can't undo the seatbelt or open the door....it then goes on.

I have one which isn’t really upsetting but plagues me.
I am taking my GCE’s as they were in my day and whatever the paper is I know nothing except what an Isthmus and an Archipelago are.
I go into the hall thinking well at least I know the answer to those questions.
Not much good if that day is French or maths.

I take medication now but both nightmares pre-date this.

Dee1012 One of the interpretations I have been given was something about returning to the womb (hence the water). In the dream I usually go into the harbour with the car and I can feel the cold water rising in the car as it sinks.

I rarely remember my dreams, but I have one horrible recurring nightmare that crops up maybe once a year. The police are hammering at my door and I’m in a blind panic because I know that I have bodies hidden all round the house, all neatly wrapped in bin liners and parcel tape. Then I wake up in a cold sweat.

I can confirm that this has nothing whatever to do with my lifestyle or past experiences.

The odd thing is, we were talking about dreams and nightmares at a family do once and my son-in-law described exactly the same one!

Mine is often that I’m lost somewhere but when I try to use my phone to phone my husband it won’t work. I think it’s related to my psychological problem of fear of losing someone.

Since my Mum passed away nearly 20 years ago I frequently have dreams of going into my Mum & Dad's lounge and she's sitting on the sofa and I tell her I thought she was dead and I've been looking for her everywhere. I hug her and cry.

So not scary, but I do sometimes get very upset when I wake up - it's so real that I wake up and for a nanosecond I think she's still with us.

Skydancer I have a similar recurring dream, I keep trying to dial a number but keep getting it wrong. I try and try but I can't put in the right number. I've had the same dream for years.

My daughter told me today that her 8 year old son had a
nightmare last night which upset him.
"He was in a war and going to be killed by a mattrass"
I can't stop laughing, poor little chap.

Marg75. How strange that we should have such similar dreams. I dream vividly most nights but the phone dream happens more than anything else. In the dream I become more and more distressed not being able to contact someone-usually my husband.

I have a recurring dream in which I wake my husband up to warn him that we have left the children in the kitchen. In the dream I can look down through a glass floor and see a kitchen with toddlers wandering around it. They don't appear to be our children or grandchildren and it's not our actual kitchen.

Skydancer

*Marg75*. How strange that we should have such similar dreams. I dream vividly most nights but the phone dream happens more than anything else. In the dream I become more and more distressed not being able to contact someone-usually my husband.

I also dream I am trying to contact my husband to pick me up because I am really late for something important but when I call him it is such a bad line I can’t hear him. He often wakes me up because I have been shouting in my sleep.

I took Kalms with valerian for a while but stopped it when it said very vivid dreams could occur. I had been having terrible dreams, once I awoke and found myself crawling around on the bedroom floor trying to escape something.

Nightmares and/or anxiety dreams can be caused by a drop in blood sugar ... or at least mine were. You don't have to be diabetic to experience this ... I am not.

A snack plus a teaspoonful of honey at bedtime often aids restful sleep. It works for me.

I had a recurring nightmare of being blind but not wanting anyone to know. I would drive to work and try to carry out my work tasks without anyone noticing that I couldn't see. Obviously this was ridiculous but in the nightmare I was experiencing horrible emotions and fears verging on terror.

A friend came up with a brilliant idea. She said that dreams are often nonsensical and we can use that. She suggested that every bedtime I remind myself that I carried some magic spectacles in my pocket which would help me see. I could put these on and I'd no longer be blind.

I know it sounds crazy but I never had the being blind nightmare again.

If anyone is taking it, Bisopralol is renowned for inducing nightmares. In my case it is all the things that I am terrified of: fire & heights and the scary things that go along with those scenarios. Even watching advertisements and news bulletins - particularly for the latter turn my legs to gello. It is irrational and illogical, I know but I can't help it.

My friend went to a recommended hypnotist. It worked.
She was at the stage where she was frightened to go to sleep.

Skydancer I dream a lot, mostly nothing to upset me, but the phone one happens every so often. Are you able to actually dial the right number but no one answers or like me, you are unable to actually dial the numbers and have to go back and start again several times!

Dee1012 Do you perhaps feel that you have no control over situations at various stages in your life?

I am forever dreaming about needing the loo! Every public toilet has glass walls. Or no doors. Why? This has gone on for years!

Having diverticulosis and often needing the loo , I am always dreaming that I am out and about and looking for the loo and when I find the loo it is never attached to the plumbing system and cannot be used, or I open the toilet door and there is no loo there. Wonder what that means.

Recurring nightmares can signify unresolved issues from the past or it can produce a kind of practice scenario so the dreamer can rehearse their reactions to a threat. Just googled it.

I don't think I've ever had a nightmare. The type of dream you tend to remember.

Galton

Having diverticulosis and often needing the loo , I am always dreaming that I am out and about and looking for the loo and when I find the loo it is never attached to the plumbing system and cannot be used, or I open the toilet door and there is no loo there. Wonder what that means.

Galton I have the exactly the same dream as you, I have IBS and have had the same dream for years.