Nightmares

[mbennet35]

I suffer from a lot of nightmares. Last night I dreamt that I killed myself. Most of the dreams I have are ones of me getting killed in some way or dying. Is there some meaning to this?

[southbiochem]

Simply put:

depression kicking in hard, fear of change, the role of medications and most importantly, your anxiety issues, to which you are not adressing while conscious

[princealbertofb]

Yes, it probably means that you are ready to confront a new self, putting an end to the person you once were (maybe the shy, awkward, uncomfortable one) and dreaming yourself to be someone new... Generally when you dream about death, it means a transition is coming. Like a slough for an animal, you are ready to shed the old to endorse the new... You shouldn't be having nightmares about it. If they are nightmares, it is because you are still battling with your inner demons, the ones that are telling you there is a risk in changing or adopting that new life. They are causing you some anxiety, but I'm going to guess that once you have the courage to try that new life, you'll probably feel much less anxiety, and maybe even relief.
So, good luck to you, my best Meebles...

[princealbertofb]

The silver lining outlines every cloud, right?

[Adrift]

Try analysing each person and object that stands out as "significant" in the dream/nightmare and question to yourself what they mean to you in real life; or what you see in them and what characteristics stand out in real life; or what purpose they serve in real life. Then see what you can see in yourself in relation to these. Dreams are telling you about you.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

All mysticism aside, people who have a lot of nightmares tend to have other 'issues' - either lots of stress in their life, or a mental/emotional problem. For instance I have reoccurring nightmares due to PTSD.

While I have some repeated history taking place, sort of like a movie of the past event, in many of my dreams, I have seemingly unrelated dreams where the theme is fantastical but the elements being addressed (powerlessness, loss of control, fear, pain, etc) are there. The brain tires of running through the events as they actually happened attempting to resolve the conflict, thus it turns to making up 'stories' that hold the same emotional load to attempt to 'resolve' the conflict.

You have depression, no job, live with the parents no car, no resources to change anything at this time - so you are 'stuck' in this stressful situation and your brain is putting you through this hell attempting to reach a resolution - Death is the ultimate loss of control, and no doubt being dependent on others is your area where you have 'lost your control' over your life, thus your brain is trying to resolve those feelings by playing out these dreams attempting to either accept being out of control, or perhaps trying in someway to come up with a solution to the issue.

One of the things I did to lessen the impact of my nightmares was to log them - - - most important to log are the ones that wake you up and you can sleep, write down every bit of detail you can of the dream while it is fresh.

Once you get several or many nightmares down and read back through them in the light of day you may start seeing patterns that make sense to you in your life.

Also refrain from eating before bedtime. Make a note to not devour anything beyond clear liquids 2 hours before you go to bed. Eating food leads to the body metabolizing that, and most foods are converted into sugars, and sugar is pure energy for the body. The brain with pure energy while trying to sleep is more active.

Yes I know, you are diabetic. Eat a high protein, like peanut butter - off a spoon, no bread.

Regulate your sleep habit. You are up all hours of the night, go for long periods without sleep, then crash and sleep long periods. Stop it! You really need to get your body into a sleeping pattern that is regular and scheduled.

I would suggest two hours before bedtime take a long walk - I would say around the block but your in a rural area so that may be one hella large block. Figure at least 15 minutes of walking, So walk down the road for AT LEAST 7.5 minutes, turn around and walk back. That wee bit of exercise will burn up energy, and you will get a bit of fresh air and all of that tends to settle a busy brain down.

Longer is better. No need to run or jog (unless you are being chased by zombies, then by all means RUN!)...

I don't have your medical file, other than insulin what are you on or have you been on lately?

Many medications cause 'enhanced' dreaming - things like vivid dreaming. Then coming off a drug (prescription or otherwise) can also lead to 'enhanced dreaming'). Recently stopped taking medication (past month) that may be an underlying cause.

As for sleep schedule:

http://lifehacker.com/5548150/how-to-reb...ou-deserve There is a lot of helpful data right there.

While it may not lead to no nightmares whatsoever, setting your sleep pattern to a regular period and refraining from eating and getting a wee bit of exercise before bed-time may reduce the amount of nightmares you have.

As for the content - That may just be your pet nightmare. Do you fear death? If so that may be the reason right there, your brain working through its fear of death. It can be that simple.

[MisterTinkles]

I have been good at interpreting dreams for people, but I usually have to be physically near them to do it. I have had a 100% success rate at diving dreams so far.

I can attempt to divine yours if you are interested. I would need you to PM me a dream, in detail, from beginning to end, including smells, people, colors, animals, places, sounds, etc....

I dont know that I can do much good across such a distance, but I can try...if you want.

[Woollyhats]

Do you sometimes feel that you want to die, or have a deep fear of death? Do you hate yourself to the point where you feel you'd want to hurt yourself or stop existing? Do you feel so stressed out that you just want it to all go away? Things like that?

Alternatively, do you feel that you're changing and that the person you used to be is 'dying?', for better or worse?

You are completely uninhibited in your dreams ---- where you'd normally say, "No, I shouldn't think that!", while dreaming, you simply will imagine and think of everything. Dreams can be random, but also can be literal, or symbolic interpretations of things in your life. They can also be an unconscious attempt to understand things from your waking ours.

Your dreams could be random --- you may have had a dream about killing yourself, and had it strike so deep that it created something of a cycle. But it could also be a sign of depression, which is something to consider.