# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion > Nightmares and Recurring Dreams >  >  Anybody Else Slightly Enjoy Nightmares?

## GenericUser10621

I Love Waking Up From A Nightmare And Just Going "Woah."

Then I Get All Paranoid In My Bed And Make Sure All Of My Bodies Covered By My Quilt.

And I Start To Hear Noises And Voices Due To Paranoia And Adrenaline.

It's Intense. And I Love It.

Anyone Else Like It?

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## kingofclutch

I love thinking about it the day after but during the dream and right afterwards I am always freaked out.

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## Lëzen

I think you're mistaking "scary dreams" for "nightmares". Two very different things. No rational human being should ever enjoy a nightmare.

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## dreamingofdreaming

I have to agree, I enjoy nightmares as well, the craziness of them and the rush you get, like the adrenalin you mentioned. Even when I was a kid, I would be amazed at what I had seen and how real it was, thankful it was a dream, but none the less, amazed and amused  ::mrgreen::  

 :vampire: 
 :Werewolf: 

Lezen - Guess I'm not a rational human being then  ::D:  
How do you distinguish a nightmare from a "scary dream", isn't a nightmare scary and a scary dream a nightmare??

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## EchoSun13

My nightmares are so vivid I wake up thinking it really happened.

I always have them too, and yes...I love the feeling.

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## Desert Claw

I miss my nightmares... The last nighmarish dream was about a dog that pounced out of the dark and mauled me like a ragdoll... I guess I had it coming because I was starting right at the thing. I wonder, is there a way to induce nightmares?

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## EchoSun13

> I miss my nightmares... The last nighmarish dream was about a dog that pounced out of the dark and mauled me like a ragdoll... I guess I had it coming because I was starting right at the thing. I wonder, is there a way to induce nightmares?




I always have bad dreams, and what I do is stay up for hours and hours without sleep, with caffine.

I have a nightmare everynight, if not twice a night.

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## dreamingofdreaming

A good scary movie right before bed usually does the trick....but not a cheesy one, something disturbing.... I recommend Japanese Horror movies, they are very creepy, non linear and usually don't have a "happy ending", like most of us are used to in our Americanized brains  ::D: 

Try Ukumaki or Suicide Club (Suicide Circle) to get started.....

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## KingCarnie

> Try Ukumaki or Suicide Club (Suicide Circle) to get started.....



Uzumaki? That's Spiral, right? I don't know about the movie, but the manga almost traumatized me. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone.

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## Timothy Paradox

Whenever I wake up from a nightmare I do lots of Rc's to make sure I'm not dreaming... fear + dreaming state = auch... You never know what's creeping around in the dark...

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## EchoSun13

> Whenever I wake up from a nightmare I do lots of Rc's to make sure I'm not dreaming... fear + dreaming state = auch... You never know what's creeping around in the dark...



*Three glances over shoulder!*

Why did you say that...gah!?

 ::shock::

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## Lëzen

> Lezen - Guess I'm not a rational human being then  
> How do you distinguish a nightmare from a "scary dream", isn't a nightmare scary and a scary dream a nightmare??



No offense, but what you're saying is basically like saying "because all squares are parallelograms, all parallelograms are squares". Squares and parallelograms share some similarities, but they also share stark differences. Same with nightmares and scary dreams.

A scary dream is...well, scary. It induces an adrenaline rush which, yes, is exciting. It's the type of dream that everyone in this thread is agreeing that they enjoy. It's the kind you wake up from with a slight jolt and a "Wow, that was scary!" before writing down the dream in your DJ and going back to sleep.

But a nightmare is most certainly not the same thing as a scary dream - even though 99.9% of them tend to be scary in nature. A nightmare, by very definition, leaves you feeling emotionally distressed - usually to the point of not being _able_ to fall back asleep, no matter how you try (although most people who've woken from a nightmare don't even _want_ to try, for fear of reliving the awful experience). It's the kind of dream where you'll wake up either screaming, in a cold sweat, crying uncontrollably, or some combination of the three.

Here's the simplest way I can compare the two. Getting chased by a guy with a chainsaw at a Halloween-themed house of horrors/haunted house is fun, because although it's scary, you know there's no real danger. This is like a scary dream.

Being held captive by a _real_ chainsaw-wielding maniac who's dissecting your friends and family members right before your eyes - and knowing that you're most definitely next - is downright traumatizing, and nowhere near what anyone could consider fun. This is like a nightmare.

So what I'm saying in a nutshell is this: 

Scary dreams are scary, but in a way that gives you an enjoyable rush. A pleasant experience.

Nightmares are also scary, but in a way that leaves you feeling terrified, despaired, hopeless...you get the idea. A very unpleasant experience.

Sorry for sounding like a know-it-all, but it just irks me to see how "scary dreams" and "nightmares" are always considered one and the same, considering that recently my little sister (who has frequent scary dreams - which she enjoys) has recently had a recurring nightmare that's left her with a grand total of about 12 hours of sleep in the span of five days.  :Sad:

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## chezz

while I cant even remember my last nightmare, whats really scary to me is a 'daymare' when you day dream a nightmare, because you know your not in bed sleeping. For me back in school math class was more terrifing then anything ive ever seen since i always dozed off, some good, but some really bad. Like having my eye lids carved off with a rusty butter knife and tooth picks being broken off under my finger nails, as my best friend shouts out other recomendations of what to do to me, then waking up with him in the desk right beside me.

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## Beeyahoi

I think what I really enjoy more than being in sheer terror in a dream (Although that can be fun too  ::D: ) is a spooky or eerie dream.  Just something with a creepy vibe to it.

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## Tweek

> I think you're mistaking "scary dreams" for "nightmares". Two very different things. No rational human being should ever enjoy a nightmare.



this.

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## Ars_Moriendi

I rarly have nightmares anymore but when I was a little kid I had them so bad I had to see a psychiatrist, so I would definaltly say there's a difference between scary dreams and nightmares because the scary dreams I have now I wake up thinking "that would be an awesome horror movie".

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## dreamingofdreaming

bumpity bump bump I see.... Well I still think there is no difference between the two...I can see how consistency plays a roll. If you have scarydreams/nightmares every night or even just 3 times a week, this can truly terrorize a person. But if you only get them occasionally they are probably enjoyed more and not feared as much....
Yah, I really fail to see the difference...

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## SleepyCookieDough

Well, if nightmares are what Laren describes them to be, I never had one because I never woke up screaming, crying or sweating. And I get it now, nightmares are not just a scary, they are traumatising and some sort of disorder but know that people use the word nightmare to describe scary dreams in every day life. 

I wish I once had a real nightmare. I'd be so scared in the moment and all but when its all done, I'd be like "awesome!" I don't care wether an experience is fun or not, what I care is wheter this experience was different, unique, tiring, exciting, teaching.

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## Ars_Moriendi

I guess it probably depends on the person and the intencity of the dream. For example I had a pretty vivid dream about being stuck in a swamp full of zombies and it was scary, but when I woke up I liked it, I thought the imagery in my dream was amazing and I wished I could fall back to sleep and pick the dream up where I left off. I'd label that a "scary dream". On the other hand I remember a dream I had where I was in my bedroom and my door shut and locked itself. I got up and tried to open it and it wouldn't budge. I look over and see my closet door slowly opening, the feeling of dread I fealt was so intense that when I woke up I was still fealt it. I had to get up and walk around because I didn't want to go back to sleep. Even if I wanted to I wouldn't be able to because my heart was beating so hard I wouldn't be able to relax. I would consider that a "nightmare". In both dreams I was in danger, but only one actually affected my emotions after it was over.

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## SleepyCookieDough

I get those stress dreams (as I call them). Like, I'll be making a puzzle with big pieces on a couch but the pieces would fall on the ground and I'd sorta of swallow them. I got these often as a kid and everytime, i'd wake up really anxious/nervous and run all around the house, almost crying, telling my parents that I don't know why but I am stressed about something and it would take a long time for me to calm down. i never get stressed otherwise. Once, I had gotten this dots all over my hands and went to the sick room (infirmery) and the nurse told me to rest. I wasn't nervous at all. I dream about something to do with my lunch box, nothing bad but when I woke up, I was all tensed and ran all around the school trying to find a teacher to tell them i had ate from my lunch box even though I wasn't alowed. it felt like I had done a crime or something. When I went in the sick room, it was lunch but when I got out, people were back to class so when i arrived in the cafeteria and I saw no one that made me panic... These were weird dreams... since they weren't so bad, its when I woke up that everything became horrible.

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## Sentaku

Yes!  I love creepy/scary dreams!  The downright nightmares I don't like, though.

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## Bayside

Yeah, I love scary/creepy dreams or whatever, but what I consider to be true nightmares I definitely do not love.  These are the dreams where I dream of dying loved ones, or whatnot in ways that are terrifying to the core.  One in particular sticks in my mind, which I awoke from with a scream, and was too terrified to move in my bed for several minutes, and this fear and uneasiness sat with me for the next few days or weeks.  Experiences like that are not enjoyable whatsoever.

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## MrFantasy

Dreams in which I'm being chased by some kind of scary entity (monsters, cops, etc.) are extremely exhilarating and I enjoy them very much. However there are some dreams that are just terrible experiences and make me not want to sleep ever again for fear I might have a similar dream again.

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## thedreamingwolfess

I've been trying to get a nightmare for ages. I can't really remember the last one I had. I really want one. XD In answer to your question...I insanely LOVE nightmares.

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## z1nk666

> No offense, but what you're saying is basically like saying "because all squares are parallelograms, all parallelograms are squares". Squares and parallelograms share some similarities, but they also share stark differences. Same with nightmares and scary dreams.
> 
> A scary dream is...well, scary. It induces an adrenaline rush which, yes, is exciting. It's the type of dream that everyone in this thread is agreeing that they enjoy. It's the kind you wake up from with a slight jolt and a "Wow, that was scary!" before writing down the dream in your DJ and going back to sleep.
> 
> But a nightmare is most certainly not the same thing as a scary dream - even though 99.9&#37; of them tend to be scary in nature. A nightmare, by very definition, leaves you feeling emotionally distressed - usually to the point of not being _able_ to fall back asleep, no matter how you try (although most people who've woken from a nightmare don't even _want_ to try, for fear of reliving the awful experience). It's the kind of dream where you'll wake up either screaming, in a cold sweat, crying uncontrollably, or some combination of the three.
> 
> Here's the simplest way I can compare the two. Getting chased by a guy with a chainsaw at a Halloween-themed house of horrors/haunted house is fun, because although it's scary, you know there's no real danger. This is like a scary dream.
> 
> Being held captive by a _real_ chainsaw-wielding maniac who's dissecting your friends and family members right before your eyes - and knowing that you're most definitely next - is downright traumatizing, and nowhere near what anyone could consider fun. This is like a nightmare.
> ...



Don't be such a killjoy.  You are right but still i mean cmon.   Anyways ya i think "scary dreams" or whatever are pretty fun and exciting once you get over with the fear.

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## Jai

> Here's the simplest way I can compare the two. Getting chased by a guy with a chainsaw at a Halloween-themed house of horrors/haunted house is fun, because although it's scary, you know there's no real danger. This is like a scary dream.
> 
> Being held captive by a _real_ chainsaw-wielding maniac who's dissecting your friends and family members right before your eyes - and knowing that you're most definitely next - is downright traumatizing, and nowhere near what anyone could consider fun. This is like a nightmare.(



Exactly. Nightmares are traumatizing. I am still traumatized from nightmares I had as a young child, and traumatized by every one since.

Anyone who can state that they 'love' nightmares has obviously never had one  ::shock:: .

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## thedreamingwolfess

> Exactly. Nightmares are traumatizing. I am still traumatized from nightmares I had as a young child, and traumatized by every one since.
> 
> Anyone who can state that they 'love' nightmares has obviously never had one .



I love nightmares, and I have had one according to the definition Lëzen gave ("It's the kind of dream where you'll wake up either screaming, in a cold sweat, crying uncontrollably, or some combination of the three."). Not sure why I love them. Maybe it's not love, it could just be longing. Like a nightmare is actually necessary every once in awhile (I haven't had one in ages). Maybe if I had another one that feeling would go away.  :tongue2:

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## Timothy Paradox

I believe nightmares exist because we are still animals, and need to be prepared for dangerous and incredibly scary situations. I think that perhaps they are meant to keep our senses aware and our instincts (fear and panic are instinyual responses) working.

I once read a post here on DV from a guy who asked a DC in a nightmare why he was trying to kill him. The DC said "We want your energy". Perhaps this was the subconscious confessing its true goal?

A personal note: the reason why I can't wait to kiss a girl in real life is because I did it once in a dream and it was the best thing ever. Pure magic.
Maybe this is my mind's way of getting me to do stuff?

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## oniman7

> But a nightmare is most certainly not the same thing as a scary dream - even though 99.9% of them tend to be scary in nature. A nightmare, by very definition, leaves you feeling emotionally distressed - usually to the point of not being able to fall back asleep, no matter how you try (although most people who've woken from a nightmare don't even want to try, for fear of reliving the awful experience). It's the kind of dream where you'll wake up either screaming, in a cold sweat, crying uncontrollably, or some combination of the three.



By this definition, I have a lot of nightmares and I definitely don't miss them. I can only remember one truly scary nightmare, and none of the three above happened. However, it was in 5th grade and my friend had convinced me that magic was real ( he was pretty good at his trickery ) and he had told me about these demons called wraiths that hunt people down. In the dream, these wraiths had attacked me and this same friends, and we were the last ones left, hiding in a room. The wraiths started beating at the door, and a red flash shrouded my vision and then I woke up. I was freaked out about it the next day, and for a week afterwards. And to make it worse, in the dream, I heard or saw two dates. Those dates are coming up sometime around next year. 

All my other nightmares have been about something like my family dying. I wake up with tears streaming down my face, and sometimes sweating, but never anything else.

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## SleepyCookieDough

> I believe nightmares exist because we are still animals, and need to be prepared for dangerous and incredibly scary situations. I think that perhaps they are meant to keep our senses aware and our instincts (fear and panic are instinyual responses) working.



Maybe. That's actually a good possibility. I actually always wanted to have them as a kid because I thought they were adventures. lol!






> I once read a post here on DV from a guy who asked a DC in a nightmare why he was trying to kill him. The DC said "We want your energy". Perhaps this was the subconscious confessing its true goal?



Why would your own subconscious try to steal energy from itself? I'm not too sure about that one. Maybe it was just a way of making even lucid dreamers scared and do what you do in a nightmare: RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!






> A personal note: the reason why I can't wait to kiss a girl in real life is because I did it once in a dream and it was the best thing ever. Pure magic.
> Maybe this is my mind's way of getting me to do stuff?



I had that experience in a dream. i agree, it's effin awesome. But I'm not sure about your brain telling you to do something... I experienced lots of stuff in dreams that I'm sure wouldn't be a good idea to do in real life... Its some sort of coincidence I think. For all the things we dream, I'm sure there's at least one that can be done and can be really tempting in real life, kissing a girl in this case  ::content::  lol. 

Plus, what's the relation with nightmares?  :Thinking:

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## karategurl

Aaa! Don't suggest Suicide Club. I've had at least eight (possibly more-- and that's not a joke) vivid reccuring nightmares about the opening scene in the past year, only having saw it once. It's very disturbing. :'(

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## Caradon

> I Love Waking Up From A Nightmare And Just Going "Woah."
> 
> Then I Get All Paranoid In My Bed And Make Sure All Of My Bodies Covered By My Quilt.
> 
> And I Start To Hear Noises And Voices Due To Paranoia And Adrenaline.
> 
> It's Intense. And I Love It.
> 
> Anyone Else Like It?



Yeah, the scarier the dream the better. I think it's the intensity that I really enjoy too. 

The best thing is getting Lucid in the middle of it, then showing the dream who is boss.

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## CeDeR

Yeah i like scary dreams and i love sleep paralysis but intense nightmares are a bit too much.Once i had a nightmare in which i was insane and i was trying to escape from a psychiatric ward.Woke up crying and took me a while to get my act together after waking up.

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## Kraftwerk

Honestly, I enjoy most dreams that aren't 'Night Terrors' (Yes, I've recalled a night terror)... Theres nothing worse than a night terror. Every time I have one, I wake up and have a terrible breathing attack. I feel like I'm going to die, like someones choking me to death, couple that with the panic from the dream.. its not pretty. But bizzare/Macabre dreams are great, I love waking up and thinking 'Did that really just... happen?'!

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## sora12

I really enjoy nightmares where I'm running away from gigantic monsters or physco killers for some reason. I just love the rush and intensity of it all. Other types of nightmares I could live without.

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## Costello

> I love thinking about it the day after but during the dream and right afterwards I am always freaked out.







> My nightmares are so vivid I wake up thinking it really happened.



I am pretty much the same as this. For example, I had a dream me and my Dad killed a guy and we tried to dispose of the body but we f**ked up [we tried to dump him over the side of a skyscraper but his head came off and blood went all down the side of the building... we dropped him anyway]  ::lol::  so we tried to escape by taking an elevator down through the basement to the.... London Underground, then the dream ended.

I woke up in a slight sweat and actually said out loud, 'thank f**k that was dream!'

I really couldn't deal with the fact that we had killed a guy and I was s**ting myself thinking we were going to prison.

However, looking back on it, it was pretty cool seeing the guys head being decapitated [I was holding the legs, my Dad was holding the arms. He let go too early and his head smashed against the side of the building and came off]  ::lol::  Also, I told my Dad about it and it gave him a giggle.

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## Cabletv

Yeah, I thought I was the only one with retarded inverted logic. But apparently not  ::D:  Yeah I wake up scared, and cover my body with the quilt, and pretend to be asleep as if that stops anything that would attack me from attacking me...but its so intense, the adrenaline, its sorta fun.

Maybe its got something to do with, despite having arachnaphobia, I'm fascinated by spiders and often play with them, although I get freaked the F out..

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## Lucid-Balloon

I am ok with nightmares as long as they are not too painful or too scary.

I once had a nightmare of someone melting into a puddle, it was sort of like watching a movie because i had no body in the dream.

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## Samael

I enjoy scary dreams. I enjoy fighting off hordes of zombies, blowing up Wendigos with nuclear explosives, and even running away from things that are most definitely trying to kill me. They're exhilarating. Life-affirming. Fun. Because in all these dreams, I have a measure of control over the situation. I can fight, I can run, and even if I lose, it was still an adventure.

I do not enjoy nightmares. I define a nightmare as losing complete control over the dream, and having no way to react to the situation. You know, you can't move, you can't scream, you can't do anything about the rabid creature stalking toward you?

Scary Dreams = Fun
Nightmares = Uncontrollable

tl;dr: No.

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## Zhaylin

For me, intense, emotional dreams of death, dying, mutilation, gore etc are enjoyable.  I jump from one DC's perspective to another or go into viewer or god-mode.
I don't feel refreshed after such dreams, as a general rule though.

Dreams I consider "nightmares" are emotionally traumatic themed- my hubby divorcing me, fights between me and my family- boring things lol but things I'm none-the-less anxious about and deeply affected by.

I never understood how I could enjoy swimming through blood while killing monsters and wake up feeling amazed and yet wake up crying and paranoid or angry because I dreamed of getting into a shouting match with my relatives  ::roll::

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## Crazydreamergurl

I used to have tons of night mares when I was young. I hated them but now that I look back at them they we're actually cool. The characters and things that happened to me we're rare and exciting. 

But now, I haven't had a night mare in 5 or 6 years...

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## Medevila

> I used to have tons of night mares when I was young. I hated them but now that I look back at them they we're actually cool. The characters and things that happened to me we're rare and exciting. 
> 
> But now, I haven't had a night mare in 5 or 6 years...



Although I wouldn't quite say I enjoy them, I find my nightmares much more interesting than many of my normal dreams- they actually have a plot usually.

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## Amoeba

> But a nightmare is most certainly not the same thing as a scary dream - even though 99.9% of them tend to be scary in nature. A nightmare, by very definition, leaves you feeling emotionally distressed - usually to the point of not being _able_ to fall back asleep, no matter how you try (although most people who've woken from a nightmare don't even _want_ to try, for fear of reliving the awful experience). It's the kind of dream where you'll wake up either screaming, in a cold sweat, crying uncontrollably, or some combination of the three.



I don't think the reaction always needs to be this extreme though. I get what you mean about the difference. I have had dreams that were exciting, in a scary run-for-your-life kind of way, that I kind of wished I could fall back into after waking up, and I have had dreams that I absolutely did not want to think about again or dream again that just made me feel sick and frightened - no enjoyable excitement at all.

However, whenever I have had one of these truly nightmarish dreams, I have very, very rarely woke up panting, never woke up sweating or crying. I have very rarely ever felt like I needed to get up and not fall back asleep.

Most of my nightmares I am screaming in the dream, and just want it to end any way, it's horrible. I wake up relieved it was just a dream and I might be panting and my heart is thumping but I simply remind myself "it was only a dream" and I quite easily fall back asleep.

Nightmares come at different intensities.


That all said, I'd say I _value_ but do not enjoy nightmares. I would not trade them for anything as I feel they help me grow, develop and face my demons that I would be otherwise too chicken and egotistical to face in waking life. They teach me about parts of myself I do not want to admit are there, and kind of put me in my place. They are very humbling.

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## MythicDreams

I dislike horror movies.
My nightmares are like _being_ in horror movies. Therefore, no. 
I hate nightmares, scary dreams, or whatever you might call them.

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## MrDreamsX

Most of my life, I remembered about 1-2 nightmares per year at most. I would have to say they were mostly just "scary dreams." I enjoyed them by daybreak.

Sadly, I rarely recorded my dreams before I lucid trained. Although the few that I would call _terrifying nightmares_, I still clearly remember. Apart from a few exceptional nightmares, (and one season of horrible, horrible, nightmares in 2007,) I have generally slightly enjoyed my nightmares.

*Nightmare* = A dream you would never want to have again.

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## Dreamdreamdream17

I don't like nightmares, where you are truly scared and wake up crying, but luckily I haven't had one in years. 
I do like scary dreams though, because i always create a way to battle them, for example i had a dream last night i was trapped in this house, not an ordinary house, a magical one, the owners trapped people in there to steal their youth or something. ANYWAY, my friends and i totally kicked their ass by discovering they hated loud noises so we kicked down the door, shouted, sang loudly and banged pots together, ran away and jumped through the portal back to our world. Now that was freaking awesome.

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## Spenner

I love nightmares simply because they are so vivid and powerful-- I remember every aspect of the nightmare perfectly, as it scars itself into my brain with every nuance just the way it was when I dreamt it. It's such a rush, too.

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## dreamgirl23

Love them!! Its fun when you wake up and you are all parinoid

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## thanksj

Hmmmm, it would appear that based on that description, I've never had a "Nightmare".
Now I was raised in the belief that we're all here to learn certain things. Even things liking being killed in horrible, horrible ways. However, you could still learn them in a dream. So really bad dreams are very very good things. 
I myself never particularly enjoyed bad dreams. But I can remember some running dreams that were okay.

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## Klaudyw3

As some said there is a huge difference between nightmares and scary dreams. If you   don't agree think of a   dream which made you sit still in your bed for hours . that's a nightmare. I guess ima have one tonight  ::D:

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## Klaudyw3

I just had to search for nightmares on the forum . Now i'm scared shitless loll. I don't even know why but it feels like somebody watches me and doesn't just wanna talk to me . I hate my curiosity  ::D:

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