Nightmares Of Stairs?

[Lady of Longbourn]

For many years I have had nightmares of falling down stairs. It always wakes me up, because its so real...unbelievably real. I can see the stairs in front of me...the panic of I am about to fall...stomach jumping into your throat. And then the fall...which is where I wake up.

I guess I wanted to know if anyone has these. Normal? I guess I have been having them for so long..I though it could be normal.

I asked my mother about it once. I told her about my nightmares. And she told when I was about 6 years old, she came home and I was at the middle ( stairs was in two parts if that makes sense) of the stairs. My father was at the top yelling at me to get up. She yelled at him, asking him "What the f*ck are you doing?" and he said " She fell." She always thought...If I had fell ( without his help) he would have helped me instead of yelling at me.

So I guess my other question would be if you have had this happen, do you have nightmares about it?

 

[anni]

Hi Ayesha,

I sounds like yours have it roots in something real, which might have happened. Did you ask your T about it? The thing is, some nightmares have a commonality- the falling down stairs, running across the street in slow motion and not being able to get there. etc. I have had the falling down the stairs one but know it's because I WAS tossed down them. It's a different nightmare now than the falling-stairs dream I had as a child. In that one I fell and ended up flying! That one was better. I'm not hugely stuck on dream interpretation but some are trying to tell us something, you know? It could either be about generalized fears or about literally falling down the stairs-maybe accidently but if it's awful for you perhaps your T can help you sort this out so you get some sleep. :)

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

I know what you mean. If it wasnt so real feeling...then it would easier to say its just a weird dream. I never end up flying :( Happens a lot too.

I always wake up jumping, like my whole body jumps up. It always scares my husband...worried wise.

 

[Kintsugi]

I have had a lot of dreams involving stairs and often falling, but it was directly significant to my trauma, since most of my abuse happened in my basement, and those are the stairs in my dreams. I know that I dream about them because I was always thinking to myself, "If I can just get to the stairs, I'll be free. They won't catch me." In reality, I never made it to the stairs. In my dreams, I often start on the stairs, but there is a huge gap at the top, and I often fall trying to jump across it.

:cry:

 

[anni]

I hope you don't mind a tweak on your thread- had JUST finished telling you yesterday I wasn't hugely stuck on dream interpretation, logged off, went to wake my son and he woke up confused. HA! Listen to this one! He said " Mom! I was fighting a Space Dolphin! Yea, Homer Simpson and me had to save the World so we took off in a capsule and went to outer space, and we were eating flavoured pretzels!". Hahahaha! There were no stairs involved but don't know whether or not to be worried... . He's 12. After I finished dying with delight I got him some breakfast. Saving the World requires better nutrition than pretzels. That is completey true- almost logged back in to come tell you, since we'd been talking about dreams but sat on my hands through sheer 'busy, busy day' and saved it 'til this morning.

 

[BloomInWinter]

Yes, nightmares are normal re-experiencing for trauma.

Sadly. I'm so sorry that happened to you!

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

space dolphins and pretzels????:roflmao: (the fresh ones I hope!) Sounds like an amazing dream. :)

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

Yes, nightmares are normal re-experiencing for trauma.

Let add that to the list of things I need to talk about with the T. He talks/asks a lot about what I don't remember...

 

[Bachall]

One of my recurrent dreams is the stairs in my old church. There were tons of stairs and there's a particular reason I'd dream about wandering around lost on them, but Chatty Cathy has to make a shopping list. :P

But anyway, what I was going to mention, although I didn't have horrifying nightmares often, I had really sad dreams a lot. The danger is always over, but I'm looking for the exit and can't find it, or I'm lost in a strange city/planet, or I'm looking for people or things or animals I've lost. Stairs always feature heavily.

A weird thing is that about six months ago, these dreams started getting happy, then really funny like the pretzel dream. Then about six weeks ago they changed into sad dreams again. Now it's nightmares. Ick.

The pretzels reminded me of the fun dreams. My kids have those. We all have vivid imaginations. Bad fir us but good for them!