Emotionless reaction to my Nightmares

[rockboingtoad]

I've been having nightmares every night for about a week now, and they're all fairly consistent so I know what they're about. The first three dreams were terrifying, waking me up in a cold sweat and forcing me out of bed before the sun rises. But the rest of the week I've had these nightmares, one worse than the first three, and the others about the same. And yet I feel completely emotionless both in the dream and after I wake up. Idk if I'm shutting down or I'm just fully aware it's just a dream, but I'm not entirely sure how to tackle it since I'm not getting any emotional ques anymore. Kinda feels like I'm watching TV, only its my dream, and im actively present and interacting with my dream, Im just kinda the whole time. Anyone else experience this? Will they just go away or should I be doing something? Hope everyone is having a good day and better sleep than I am lol

 

[Dark.Green.Feathers]

i get nightmares like that, a lot of mine i feel fine in the dream but afterwards the content messes with my head a bit. some of them are disturbing but i go through it and wake up and just feel a little weird, which goes away after i get up and start doing my routine. i don’t think it’s abnormal.

if it’s related to unprocessed trauma i find they get worse if im approaching them in therapy or something else. but they ebb and flow for me, i’d leave them alone for now and see how it pans out. i get times where i have a lot of nightmares and then times were i have none or very few.
might be a good idea to focus on managing stuff in real life, make sure you’re trying to ground and doing aftercare if you’re having anxiety attacks or trauma-related bad days, anything like that. just doing something nice for yourself so you can get back to base, wether that’s just making sure you have a meal or doing something you enjoy to relax. keeping stressors in check as much as is possible helps me. and only spending certain amounts of time at once approaching the tough stuff so i don’t spiral myself.

 

[arfie]

they sound kinda like what i call, "dream solving." i stole that name from the engineers who contracted me based on rumors of my talent for dream solving. nothing official, but the rumor was enough to win me more than one contract. the superstition is that you can go to sleep with a problem and wake up with the solution. science and math is full of legendary examples of dream solving.

the principle carries in my psychotherapy i work through the residual problems of my childhood while i am sleeping. my childhood was a prolonged series of nightmares. of course those problems are going to be stickier and ickier than a revolutionary circuit integration. when i am going through a dream series out of this camp, i invest extra time in plying therapy tools, just in case. if nothing else, those exercise stabilize the process.

dunno if this applies to your case, or not. just sharing.

 

[Survivor3]

Hello @rockboingtoad , are you lucid dreaming? I do that frequently, it's where you become conscious within your dream, your not just watching but interacting consciously. It's pretty wild.

 

[rockboingtoad]

i get nightmares like that, a lot of mine i feel fine in the dream but afterwards the content messes with my head a bit. some of them are disturbing but i go through it and wake up and just feel a little weird, which goes away after i get up and start doing my routine. i don’t think it’s abnormal.

if it’s related to unprocessed trauma i find they get worse if im approaching them in therapy or something else. but they ebb and flow for me, i’d leave them alone for now and see how it pans out. i get times where i have a lot of nightmares and then times were i have none or very few.
might be a good idea to focus on managing stuff in real life, make sure you’re trying to ground and doing aftercare if you’re having anxiety attacks or trauma-related bad days, anything like that. just doing something nice for yourself so you can get back to base, wether that’s just making sure you have a meal or doing something you enjoy to relax. keeping stressors in check as much as is possible helps me. and only spending certain amounts of time at once approaching the tough stuff so i don’t spiral myself.

This was very helpful, thank you. I actually took a day to myself after making this post and painted for most of it. No nightmares :) at least for tonight. Thank you for posting.

they sound kinda like what i call, "dream solving." i stole that name from the engineers who contracted me based on rumors of my talent for dream solving. nothing official, but the rumor was enough to win me more than one contract. the superstition is that you can go to sleep with a problem and wake up with the solution. science and math is full of legendary examples of dream solving.

the principle carries in my psychotherapy i work through the residual problems of my childhood while i am sleeping. my childhood was a prolonged series of nightmares. of course those problems are going to be stickier and ickier than a revolutionary circuit integration. when i am going through a dream series out of this camp, i invest extra time in plying therapy tools, just in case. if nothing else, those exercise stabilize the process.

dunno if this applies to your case, or not. just sharing.

I was considering this, actually! The human mind can process all sorts of trauma on its own in very subtle ways. Sometimes just physically doing something when the thoughts are rampant makes them ease up, and eventually go away. I've experienced this while painting. (tw: sexual) There's also certain kinks that appear in some that help process traumas. I had this a while back and didn't realize til I stumbled across some research on it. (End) The brain is an amazing thing. I was considering if I was going blank because I was meant to simply observe and collect information, and me not having an emotional reaction was either needed or signals healing. Kinda like exposure therapy but in dream state. This is a very interesting topic! Thank you for commenting about it.

Hello @rockboingtoad , are you lucid dreaming? I do that frequently, it's where you become conscious within your dream, your not just watching but interacting consciously. It's pretty wild.

Hello Survivor3, I might be. I've been Lucid dreaming since middle school, its pretty frequent for me too! It's fun in certain dreams, feels like I'm playing in another dimension.

 

[Survivor3]

Hello Survivor3, I might be. I've been Lucid dreaming since middle school, its pretty frequent for me too! It's fun in certain dreams, feels like I'm playing in another dimension.

Yes!! I talked to a few ordained members at my Buddhist centre and some of them have tried to do it, but with no luck. They say it's quite a skill. And I think it is quite literally like playing in another dimension!

 

[arfie]

The brain is an amazing thing. I was considering if I was going blank because I was meant to simply observe and collect information, and me not having an emotional reaction was either needed or signals healing. Kinda like exposure therapy but in dream state.

this theory resonates with my own sensory perception. as with real time exposure therapy, i like to take therapy supporters whenever possible. reality checks advised. even in a healthy dreamscape, the lines between reality and dream are vague and shifty business.