# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion > Nightmares and Recurring Dreams >  >  Terrifying inanimate objects in night terrors, evil presence, sleep paralysis

## iceman3040

First time post so please forgive me if someone else is having a similar issue to me. Throughout my life I have had several re-occurring, vivid night terrors, one of which I have been trying to understand for a few years. The dream starts out pleasant/not scary at all but slightly weird, so here we go:

Myself and another person in the dream (I can never remember the other persons face, they have a face but it does not seem familiar to me). Anyhow, me and this "person" are hiking in the mountains and walk into an abandoned church or sanctuary type building made of grey colored stone. At this point, everything is fine, (no scary feeling). We then see a small opening near the back wall of this church/building. We crawl through the opening and into a small room with stone walls and a dirt floor. The stone ceiling in this room is short as we are crouching. Once inside this room there are two small brown dressers in opposite corners of the room. As soon as I see these dressers I get a feeling of unease. I begin opening the drawers on one dresser while the other person that is with me begins opening drawers on the other dresser. As soon as i start opening the drawers terror starts to take hold. Nothing is in the drawers I open, just dust and debris. After I open and close the drawers on my dresser,  I look over at the other person and see they are about to open the bottom drawer of their dresser. At this point SHEER TERROR TAKES OVER. Also at this point i feel like I enter a semi-state of lucidity as i am aware i am dreaming and start telling myself " its a night terror, wake up!!!" At the same time I crawl over to the other dresser as the bottom drawer is being opened by the other person. I am looking at the bottom drawer which is only cracked open at this point but can see anything in it. As I am looking at the cracked open drawer, it is the absolute worst terrifying feeling I have EVER felt. It feels as if there is an evil presence in the drawer but it is never seen or heard. At this point I can feel my whole body jolting trying to wake me up but I am still in the dream staring at this bottom drawer. Eventually after enough body spasms and shaking I will wake up breathing heavy and still have a body spasm or two, and then of course a fast heart rate. And that's it.

So here are some notes and questions I have on this.
1. QUESTION: Why the hell is a damn dresser drawer so damn terrifying? This is what I do not understand the most? Why is an inanimate object such as a dresser and drawers cause so much fear and terror. I have no fear of my real dresser in my bedroom or fear of any dressers or drawers for that matter.
2. QUESTION: Why does my whole body spasm and shake when trying to wake up? Is this some sort of fight or flight response?
3. NOTE: The body spasms/jolting at the end of the night terror are real. I have woken my wife up with my shaking and she says I have been screaming during this. She says this jolting and screaming lasts about 30-60 seconds before I wake up. She lets it play out and does not try to wake me up ( i heard it can be bad/dangerous to try and wake someone up who is having a nightmare or night terror)
4. NOTE: The night terror happens about 1-2 times a month. The first time i experienced it, i was staying at a hotel on a business trip, but it now happens at home, vacation, business, wherever.
5. NOTE: There are occasionally slight variations to the terror. On a few occasions I have 'woken up" only not able to move or speak for a few seconds (sleep paralysis maybe??). During this it feels like my eyes are open but I am still feeling the sheer terror of the dream and then usually only one or two body spasms/jolts and I am fully awake.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated but I mainly want to know why looking at these dressers cause such a terrifying feeling.

Thank you,

Sean

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## Verre

If you're experiencing this as a recurring dream, perhaps you could try to incubate a different ending. Since from your description it sounds like you always wake up before you see what is _really_ in the drawer, let's say that it is your call what is actually in there. Try writing the dream out the dream like a story, as vividly and clearly as you can remember it, but when you get to the part where your friend opens the drawer, imagine the silliest and most innocuous thing you could find within it, and write that down as the ending. A fluffy yellow duckling? A vanilla cupcake? A pink Easter egg? Make it something as ridiculous and harmless and delightful as you can think of. Then read your narrative every night before you go to bed, and visualize as clearly as you can the innocent, pleasant thing that you'll find in the drawer. If your mind is screwing with you, you're the only one who can reprogram it!

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## stonedreams

Personally if I was you I would use this to help induce a full on lucid by recognizing that it is a reoccurring dream. Considering that it is your first post you may not be here to practice dreaming but instead figure out what you can do about your nightmare. If you are just looking to make this go away and go back to just restless sleep I like Verre's idea but do keep in mind lucid dreaming can not only help you defeat this nightmare but also help you open the doors to your subconscious. Good Luck!

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