Tuesday, April 22, 2008


I have had nightmares off and on all my life. I never once thought about writing them down, but now I wish I had. They would have made great storylines! When I was a child, I used to have a recurring dream of giant bumblebees in the basement of our house. I would inevitably end up down in the basement full of fear, and then be chased up the stairs and throughout the house by the bees. I can attribute the dream to an incident that occurred when I was five years old. I had been stung on both the upper and lower lips by a honey bee! Of course, as I got older, those dreams disappeared. I don't recall many of the dreams I've had over the years, except of course, for the ones that seemed to be completely nuts! I think the dreams about the spaceships were the scariest. I'm sure I had these dreams because of all the science fiction books and movies I had read and seen. There was always the feeling of dread in these dreams. I haven't had the spaceship dreams in several years but I can remember them as if I'd had one last night. They always started with a sound. The sound of whirring.... slow and low, almost like the sound a large jet makes when it is off in the distance. As soon as I would hear this sound I knew that they were coming. This particular dream was recurring. I would run around my house trying to lock all the doors, pull the shades down on all the windows, fear rushing through my whole body. I saw them in the sky just above the trees in the back yard, hovering, waiting. The sky would grow dark with them, and the air was electrically charged whenever they were there. I can't remember ever going much beyond that... although as I write this I feel as if there had been more to the dream, I just can't remember it. I would wake up in a cold sweat, heart beating like mad, consumed with fear. They were horrible dreams. There were other dreams of spaceships, throughout my life... one I can remember where I was standing in a huge open field with other people and this spaceship of immense proportions was floating just above our heads (you could reach up and touch it). The field was bordered by a cliff above the ocean. Nothing happened in this dream.... it was just us and the spaceship. Still it invoked feelings of fear and dread.
I also had a dream (two or three times) about being in a jungle that had tree huts in a village setting. The huts were on fire and I was trying to escape the jungle. Another dream; (I thought I was awake but must not have been) I woke up to find a women dressed in Pilgrim clothes, holding my ankles tightly - so tightly that I couldn't move my legs. I woke up screaming from that one!
I have always wondered about the meaning of dreams and nightmares but found the interpretations from books much less interesting than my own. Growing up on Cape Cod, there was always an air of mystery. Ghost stories, the Salem Witches... well you can see why a person's imagination might get the best of them. I would really like to hear about your recurring dreams or nightmares! Please feel free to post in the comments and don't worry about the length... or shortness of your post.

8 comments:

  1. I love your illustration! Picture-perfect, as it were...

    Dunno if it's a blessing or a curse, but I rarely remember my dreams. It's almost an "occasion" when I do remember them... and it's usually only if or when a dream wakes me up, these days.

    But. Back when I was about 12 or 13 I had this recurring dream that would wake me up, or rather my mother would wake me up because of it (mainly because my screams disturbed the rest of the house...). In the dream I was lying in bed, with the covers pulled up to my chest and my arms folded, crossed, over the covers. A line of miniature Army men, perhaps six inches high, would form in a single rank at the foot of my bed and march slowly up to my chest, at which point they would break ranks and jump up and down on me. Then they would reform into that single rank and march back to the foot of the bed. Rinse, repeat. The problem was I that I was paralyzed, completely immobile. There was NOTHING I could do to stop them. And they kept doing it until I woke up... either on my own, or by someone else (usually Mom).

    I've always been at a loss to explain that, and so were my parents.

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  2. Dreams are so interesting. Usually if I have a nightmare, I figure it is stress/anxiety related. Those dreams are where my teeth fall out, or I cannot get something done that has to be done. Most of my bad dreams have to do with someone chasing me, trying to kill me, etc.

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  3. Buck, were you more afraid of the army guys or of being paralyzed?

    Lou,in the chase dreams, are you ever caught?

    To all:
    I used to sleepwalk when I was a child. I never remembered doing it; but I'm told I would walk down narrow staircases, even attemt to go outside. It was a real problem for my folks. I eventually grew out of it... (at least I don't think I sleepwalk now... I've never awakened anywhere but where I've gone to sleep!) Just curious, any of you have similar experiences?

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  4. My only nightmare(s) are about accident scenes I've worked... Not gonna go into detail, but suffice to say they are NOT pretty. Usually seem to be brought on by stress of some type; but has to be pretty severe to bring them back. Otherwise, not too many memories of dreams.

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  5. Buck, were you more afraid of the army guys or of being paralyzed?

    Yes. To both. The army guys (in full battle regalia, I should add...) hurt. In the dream.

    And sleepwalking? Dangerous stuff, that. Glad you made it through that with no scars. Literally.

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  6. I had a recurring dream when I was 7 or 8 of my house being on fire, I was going down the front steps on the porch-I could feel the cold brick under my feet and the dew on the railing and I was in my nightie and had my stuffed rabbit in one arm, and I paused and looked up to see what I knew were one of my parents' hands closing my bedroom window and knowing they weren't going to be able to get out of the house. That one bought me a bit of therapy.

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  7. Firefox- I've been plagued by recurring dreams for what feels like forever. Generally if it is very recurrent, it ends up happening.

    I don't think there is enough space to put it here, but you can check out my blog posts for April 9, 10 & 13 when you're bored. ;-)

    And while I'm at it, do you mind if I add you to my blogroll?

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  8. SF - will do... and feel free to add me!

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