Nightmares make me not want to sleep at night!

[ShyLady]

I have dreams about being chased all the time. Running from someone who is trying to kill me. I also have dreams about falling and having car accidents where I go off a bluff.

I was abused by my mom as a child, and I began running away from home off and on when I was 11 years old till I was old enough for my mom to let my boyfirend live with us when I was 15 years old. I also fell off of a cliff, about 250-300 feet, when I was 12 or 13 years old.

 

[Mari]

I also have dreams about falling and having car accidents where I go off a bluff.

I have those dreams also but my worst ones are about stairs - very steep with no railings and sometimes parts of the stairs disappear while I am trying to get down them - and I try to scream and wake myself up. In real life I can not climb stairs with glass. I fell down our basement stairs when I was very young but I can not see that still affecting me. I took a course on the meaning of dreams once but it did not make any sense to me. Mari

 

[braveheart]

What are you running from in your life, ShyLady?

--
I used to have recurring dreams of bullies pursuing me with various kinds of disgusting gunk stuff. Says a lot about my perception of myself - now the self disgust and shame is becoming more conscious and I'm able to confront it, these kind of dreams seem to have passed.

 

[LadyBumble]

I would say (bearing in mind that I'm not an expert and this is just my opinion) that your dreams are representative of your real life anxieties. The running away is a defense mechanism you began when you were a child and is still an impulse you feel, though as an adult you aren't acting on it. Even though you aren't acting on it it's still ingrained in your sobconscious as a coping method for your problems.

Have you anything in particular in your life that you feel you need to address at the moment? Equally did you ever confront your past and those people who hurt you and from whom you ran as a child? Even if you feel your life is going well at the moment those past issues are clearly still effecting you, and understandably.

I've had periods of self inflicted insomnia for similar reasons, not wanting the dreams. If you can't address those people you dream about in real life try writing to them, detailing everything they did that hurt you. You don't have to post this letter, it's for you, write it down and get it all out-it clears it from your subconscious by bringing it to your conscious mind then clearing it out.
I also suggest keeping a journal; every night, an hour or so before you go to bed, write down all the bad things that happened that day. Then write all the good things, that way those are the freshest in your mind. Then spent that hour relaxing, read a trashy novel, have a warm bath, meditate. Avoid TV or anything that might stimulate your mind, then get a lavender pillow spray and get into bed with all the lights off and take deep breaths.

I hope that some of that helps a little.

 

[rosedragon]

I have those dreams also but my worst ones are about stairs - very steep with no railings and sometimes parts of the stairs disappear while I am trying to get down them - and I try to scream and wake myself up. In real life I can not climb stairs with glass. I fell down our basement stairs when I was very young but I can not see that still affecting me. I took a course on the meaning of dreams once but it did not make any sense to me. Mari

I tends to dream about slipping and falling from stairs too, even before I almost fall because someone run carelessly in the school stairs. And it seems dream of falling is common even to people who have non-traumatic past. Oh yeah, my primary school and traditional market stairs are scary, they are so high and small stairs.

Never felt don't want to sleep but there are nightmares that makes me feel very depressed when wake up. It is when I dreamed my father doing some dumb mistakes (like he did in real life, but more destructive).