# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion > Nightmares and Recurring Dreams >  >  how to have nightmares

## triple(c)train

i really want to have a nightmare...they make good stories anyone know a way hot to? please tell

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## ThePhobiaViewed

Dreams are usually based off of what happens in real life so maybe watching some scary movies before bed would help. Maybe also some video games that have scary, evil themes. And right now you might think you want to have a nightmare but when you wake up from it don't be surprised if you think you were an idiot for ever wanting it. It's like saying "let's go to a haunted house". It may seem like a good idea in the daytime but at night you may not want to have ever mentioned it. I don't get many nightmares either and I don't really want them (unless I'm lucid).

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## Snuggleumpakis

> i really want to have a nightmare...they make good stories anyone know a way hot to? please tell



YEah you should probably work on becoming lucid first before having a nightmare so you don't like cry and think it's real.

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## awoke

I've heard chocolate can aid in nightmares.
watching a scary movie is good advice too. but non of that sissy shit like candyman or SAW. watch something that truly fucks with youre psyche, like war documentaries etc...

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## Nightmare

For me personally, I get nightmares if I sleep on my back.  When I was a kid they were so bad that I've had to train myself to stop sleeping on my back altogether.  These days if I do wake up from a nightmare, sure enough I was sleeping on my back.  Give it a shot.

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## Johnny87

> For me personally, I get nightmares if I sleep on my back.  When I was a kid they were so bad that I've had to train myself to stop sleeping on my back altogether.  These days if I do wake up from a nightmare, sure enough I was sleeping on my back.  Give it a shot.



interesting you say that, i cannot sleep on my back, seems like way back if i ever did i had nightmares. In fact i always sleep on my side now, and my face is buried in my arms, like in a way covering my eyes. Its like if i dont cover my eyes, i feel like someone is watching me, like if i open my eyes something will be there in my face. Maybe being on your back is a vulnerable position and thats why you seem to have nightmares more in it.

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## Shark Rider

This may sound stupid or pointless but, for me, personally when I watch scary movies or when I've been scared to death during the day I have at least one nightmare during the night.

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## Zenithar66

thats crazy me too, ive been sleeping on my back recently because ive got sore kidneys, and i got a terrifying nightmare that led to sleep paralysis, i was haunted by night terrors as a child and this brought back memories,

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## Zenithar66

i agree totally, that feeling of vunerability is apparent on my back

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## ~Erin~

I would too  say sleeping on your back would help. Though, in my experience it mostly comes unexpeted "causing the fear" and than the nightmare as your asleep or falling asleep. For me anyway, if your expecting something I doubt it will happen but again it has worked for  me a few times.

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## Shift

In my experience, fearing for your loved ones = instant-nightmare!
Why anyone would ever willingly do that to themselves is beyond me. My non-lucids are still extremely realistic, so when I think people have been injured or killed in my dreams, I experience their loss. It's horrible. 

Why do you want to have nightmares??  ::shock::  It sounds more like you want to have a dream about kicking ass than huddling on a floor crying because you're petrified...

And the mention of sleeping on your back to have nightmares... well that's how people usually experience SP, right? You could easily turn an experience of SP into a nightmare. I'd much rather turn it into a lucid dream haha

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## Rusty Shackleford

eating spicy foods right before you fall asleep. whether I eat pizza, hamburgers, pasta and meatballs, mexican food right before i fall asleep... i will always have nightmares. Thats is why i try not to eat right before bed anymore unless i don't mind having teh nightmares. Certain supplement like ZMA and Melatonin cause vivid dreams... not necessarily nightmares but weird vivid dreams none the less.

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## mel_noah

99% of my nightmares happen when I am on my back

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## Hukif

For me, simply transforming dreams into nightmares via DILD either that or thinking about scary things before going to sleep, more like an incomplete WILD.

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## Bioshock

well you all have givn me a good idea for gaining lucidity, i have had LDs in a nightmareand not noticed it, it should be possible to LD in the nightmare, then get my self out of the situation and have a normal LD now off to eat chocolate watch bagdahd ER and sleep on my back.

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## Snuggleumpakis

I never have nightmares. Not since a while back, way way back. Now all I have are scary dreams here adn there but none to freak me out like crazy. Just like "whoa that was awesome" when I wake up haha.

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## Liberty

You don't need to have a nightmare to have good stories.
I have tons of weird dreams of vampires, monsters, etc. but I don't think I've actually ever had a nightmare.

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## ocdpfsas

Actually, it is true that eating food just before sleeping aids in the occurrence of nightmares. Spicy foods, hamburgers, pizza, etc (as I have seen mentioned here) are not particularly more effective than others. 

Sugar is the cause of most nightmares. When you eat sugar before bed (ie. bread) your body has no proper way of dispersing the sugar into your system because your body is not in motion. Therefore the sugar is sent to your brain because it is the most active organ during sleep. 

When your brain is full of sugar your thoughts tend to exaggerate and become scary or unusual. This is a very normal occurrence that has been proven in many psychological papers. 

If you want to have nightmares, eat chocolate (as someone else mentioned) or lots of sugar then go directly to bed. As long as you can fall asleep before the sugar keeps you awake, your brain should exaggerate your dreams and turn them into nightmares.

Happy nightmares!

-Ryan MacNeille

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## MrDreamsX

> Actually, it is true that eating food just before sleeping aids in the occurrence of nightmares. Spicy foods, hamburgers, pizza, etc (as I have seen mentioned here) are not particularly more effective than others. 
> 
> Sugar is the cause of most nightmares. When you eat sugar before bed (ie. bread) your body has no proper way of dispersing the sugar into your system because your body is not in motion. Therefore the sugar is sent to your brain because it is the most active organ during sleep. 
> 
> When your brain is full of sugar your thoughts tend to exaggerate and become scary or unusual. This is a very normal occurrence that has been proven in many psychological papers. 
> 
> If you want to have nightmares, eat chocolate (as someone else mentioned) or lots of sugar then go directly to bed. As long as you can fall asleep before the sugar keeps you awake, your brain should exaggerate your dreams and turn them into nightmares.
> 
> Happy nightmares!
> ...



You know if this were true for me, I would be having nightmares every week. I think some people are a lot more sensitive to junk food on the brain than others. When I was a kid, scary movies gave me nightmares every single time. Since I became an adult, only when I lost someone (who I was _extremely_ close with) did I begin to have regular nightmares. They lasted off and on for over a year.

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## DazedNConfused

eat something spicy before going to sleep and watch a scary movie.

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## bubblegumash8

you watch the shining or another scary movie before bed and eat alot during it. then you will be like  :Eek:  !

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## Waterknight

Ive had dreams that scared me but I dont think Ive ever had a dream that woke me up terrified like people say with nightmares. I had a reccuring dream of my cousin getting his fingers bit off by an animal we couldnt see when I was little. I love that dream now because I learned to control my dreams from that dream. After that i started to think that controlling my dreams was normal and I never dreamed right before that and that I still dreamed the wrong way 90% of the time. then looking on the internet I figured out that the dreams I thought were the right ones that I didnt do all the time were actually weird things called Lucid dreams that most people take months to train. i just figured lucid dreams were how dreams were supposed to be because different shows or stories talk about how dreams allow you to do whatever you want. I thought most people controlled there dreams

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## moskowfreak1111

> YEah you should probably work on becoming lucid first before having a nightmare so you don't like cry and think it's real.



that's the fun part about nightmares. to experiece something horrible with it being not real

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## crazydreams

heh.. I'm trying to avoid nightmares. It's really not fun when they deprive you of sleep...
I'm constantly haunted.
And, reading the comments made me smile, because: I never sleep on my back (I just can't); I haven't watched any movies at all in over a year; I don't eat much chocolate; not much sugar in my diet; I am capable of lucid dreams with some control, but there's not much control in nightmares. 

I drink a lot of ice cold water in the evenings, but I doubt that is the cause.. Try that maybe, if you want nightmares?? (frozen half filled bottles, fill with water)

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## KiwiNinja

Nightmares have a lot to do with your mindset on fear and how susceptible you are to fear.I should know, because I don't get scared at all, I just feel adrenalin rushing up my body and the feeling is kind of nice.My point is no fear => no nightmares.I haven't had a nightmare ever.Try provoking fear, not sure if it will work though.

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## Stubert

I personally have only ever had the opposite problem and in the past I have had 2+ nightmares every night. So first of all I would recommend that you think hard as they are not pleasant and if you give yourself one you could open the door to more. Personally I found that telling myself over and over before I slept that I wouldn't have a nightmare stopped them and also improving my dream recall so I could see how absurd they were also helped. I don't see why the opposites wouldn't work. Also if you do start having a lot don't worry too much as after a while you will find them less scary as you have seen it all before.

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## becky

Get a blood test for food allergies... then eat a crap load of food you are allergic too. That's where the sugar advice comes in... some people are sensitive to sugar, (especially if they have undiagnosed Lyme Disease, and/or PTSD) and some people are allergic to sugar, (but not necessarily diabetic).

I cured my Nightmare Disorder, (or my wonderful doctor did,) by getting a blood test for food allergies. I haven't had a nightmare in over a year, (well at least not a super traumatic rape one). 

* If your blood test shows a +5 - +7 allergy... don't experiment with that. (Although you would probably already know of a +6 or +7 allergy because you would die. Try eating +3 allergens. Although if you don't normally have nightmares... then you are probably not allergic to much. But if you have a few +1 allergens, then you could try eating multiple +1 foods together before bedtime.

Good Luck, and be careful what you wish for! (My PTSD turned into C-PSTD because of the nightmares)

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## Rybread34

I don't really know of any ways to trigger one. But they are helpful for becoming Lucid. Every nightmare I've had since learning about Lucid Dreaming i've become lucid.

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