What's a nightmare?

I know that's a strange question to ask. But I don't recall any dreams to date that I can classify as a nightmare. I've experienced fear in my dreams or I have seen something that I am afraid of in my dream, but when I wake up, it doesn't bother me much. I have been having the preconception that nightmares will leave a haunting effect on you after you wake up.

The closest I got to that was looking at a mirror in a lucid and fearing the mirror will show me some darn images I fear. I was afraid so I closed my eyes and I ended up in a FA. It was over within seconds.

Wiki says;

A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror. Sufferers usually awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a prolonged period of time.


But I don't class these as nightmares, I would say any dreams where I feel like I am in danger, and want to wake up to get away from it. (or if I dont know Im dreaming, where I think I may die)

For me a nightmare means a dream where im afraid in.

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Originally Posted by isthisit

But I don't class these as nightmares, I would say any dreams where I feel like I am in danger, and want to wake up to get away from it. (or if I dont know Im dreaming, where I think I may die)

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I think your last sentence answers my question pretty well. So that lucid mirror dream I had gotten could be classify as a nightmare considering I had never experience such intense fear in my dream before. Usually when I am non-lucid and I am faced with danger, I'll just fight back. Having your life on the edge in a dream seems pretty common. :chuckle:

The one sleep paralysis I had gotten wasn't scary to me too. I woke up questioning myself is that real or is that a dream? Because I sprained my neck in the SP and my neck hurt a little when I woke up in reality.

I beleve what ur thinking of is Night Terror, It's like the heavy version of nightmare.

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Originally Posted by Ekyu

I beleve what ur thinking of is Night Terror, It's like the heavy version of nightmare.

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I don't know. I actually get scared pretty easily in real life, I'm curious about the opposite of it in dreams. I have a belief that my unconscious (or something else) is protecting me from nightmares or anything that I'm afraid of because I strongly dislike it.

But every time I doubt something wouldn't happen in a dream, it happened. I might take back my words within a few day but I still hope that protect stays with me.

I've only had a handful of real nightmares in my life. I don't usually feel bothered by my dreams but there are a few that truly bothered me both in the dream and after I woke up, hence my classification of them as real nightmares.

I was once chased through the caves of Tom Sawyer by the bad guy in the Halloween movies, Michael Myers. I woke up vomiting and scared, though my fever was likely the cause of that dream.

One time I was playing in my front yard and I had a ladder set up by the carport. My cat was on it and I wanted him to jump down but he wouldn't. I pulled out an ax and chopped off his toes. That dream really bothered me for a long time.

When I was older I had a dream about a dark figure who shot me in the chest with a shotgun at point-blank range. I felt myself die, and the experience was so vivid I wrote it out to a length of 18 pages on single-spaced paper.

As I said, I classify these as real nightmares because of how I felt in the dream and how I felt after I woke up. I do not typically have bad dreams so when I do they tend to affect me for a while and linger in my mind.

I wish you pleasant dreams!

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Originally Posted by melanieb

I wish you pleasant dreams!

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Thanks for sharing your examples! I shrug for my dreams tonight after reading your bad dreams.

I distinguish nightmares/bad dreams as bad dreams being just negative - I could be afraid, distressed, frustrated or bored even. Nightmares, on the other hand, are the ones in which you experience overwhelming terror and fear, in which you experience truly disturbing things, such as images, which in the worst of cases you will never forget. And most often nightmares continue to disturb you after you've awoken.

I don't recall having a nightmare either. I occasionally have unpleasant dreams, but it is kind of like real life. When you have a bad day, you don't call it a nightmare, you call it a bad day.

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Originally Posted by DaveTheJoker

I don't recall having a nightmare either. I occasionally have unpleasant dreams, but it is kind of like real life. When you have a bad day, you don't call it a nightmare, you call it a bad day.

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Unless the day is so bad it left a traumatic impression on you, or the effects of that day carried out to later in your life.