How do you stop having really weird dreams? <_<

[Seraph]

For the past few months, I've been having some seriously vivid, and weird-butt, dreams. When I say vivid, I mean most of the time it takes a bit for me to reorient on the fact that yes, I've woken up, and this IS reality.

But not even just that, they're really, just WEIRD. Way out there weird. And I can remember almost every detail.

- Dreamed that I was stuck in my brother in law's old room, trying to fend off the most aggressive king snake in the world, armed only with a shovel and a twisty tie. Upon battling it for an entire day, found out that it was actually a super rare corn snake/king snake that had been hybridized by HYDRA as a soldier for the coming Battle To Make North Korea Annoyed.

- Giant alien spiders were trying to take over the world, they were spreading invisible web strands everywhere. I discovered this by noticing a stick was floating midair, and grabbed it. I was instantly pulled straight up into the air just going OH GOD WHYYYY

- Was finally trying to learn how to drive and....goats. Goats every flipping where. Goats on the roof. Goats in the road. Goats riding tiny little mopeds and trying to smash into the side of the car. I ended up grabbing a tonfa out of the glove compartment and beating the side of the car and yelling "I DONT HAVE YOUR STUPID CAKE LEAVE ME ALONE". Which...worked.



...So yeah. I'd like to have a single night of restful sleep for once, anyone got any tips? :P

[Gizmo]

Beyond meditation specifically designed to help you to 'empty' your mind a little before sleep not really.

And sometimes that doesn't even work for me.

I do find that dream rather amusing though. Sorry..

[Seraph]

I'd tried calming exercises before bed, they seem to work oppositely for me. =/ The more I try to not think of things, the more I panic, freak out, and end up hopping out of bed to go on a cleaning frenzy, or something.

[PandaHat]

The problem with trying to actively repress thoughts is that they tend to bounce right back stronger. Instead, acknowledge that you're thinking the things you don't want to think of and gently move on to thinking about something else.

E.g. Oh no I'm going to have that dream about goats again. Hehehe fainting goats are hilarious and cute! You know what else is cute? Kittens! Especially yawny sleepy kittens!

[Seraph]

I. Love. Fainting goats.

Try to randomize the thought process to more innocent things, eh? Hm, gotcha. I'll have to give that a shot. Not sure what a more innocent thought process from "oh god, taxes" would be, hahaha

[Food Lady]

I'm with you on the taxes. Had a weird dream this morning, but it was easily analyzeable to see it had to do with my feeling not in control of my life right now. Anyway, the goat/car video in my head right now is hilarious.

[PepperElf]

I normally just go with the dream unless it's at a point where I'm truly scared[1] or find that the dream is making me feel tired[2]

1: like one time where I was dreaming that a demon was trying to possess me and that if I didn't wake up I'd be possessed. I forced myself awake from that thing.

2: dreaming I'm at work. repeatedly. My worst case was on my second ship where we'd been working on the switches and I went to my rack and dreamed about IP addresses. After the third time I was sick of it cos the last thing I want to do is dream that I'm working still… so every time I drifted off and started thinking about IP addresses I forced myself awake (not hard cos I was only 1/4 asleep at that point).


And, lastly… a little trick from a website/fanpage I use to go to. The girls there wanted to dream about their favorite character so they would think about him constantly before going to bed.

I have to say that actually works sometimes. Not that I specifically joined in on thinking about that character but that… when I read a TON of fanfic before going to sleep sometimes I'll dream about the characters in the fanfic. (it usually happens more often if I do this a few nights in a row)

[Kheldarson]

You might learn some tricks to dream lucidly. That would definitely help.

But failing that, I like designing my dreams. Basically, I start imagining out a story or scene with my favorite characters and run with it until I sleep. My dreams tend to reflect the themes those characters or storyline have throughout the night.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I'd offer advice...

...except I sleep so deeply that I don't remember my dreams. It's rare when I do.

Like the time I had some weird dream that was like Harold & Kumar Versus The Terminator, or the time I dreamed I was at work, and suddenly started channeling Bray Wyatt.

Every time I remember a dream, it's always a O_o scenario, like "where the fuck did that come from?"

[KiaKat]

Stress can cause a lot of weird things. Like odd dreams.

You're under a fair bit of stress right now. What if you do something physical in the evenings, to wear out your brain? Go for a walk, play house-tag with the kids (no running, hiding is ok), or something along those lines.

[42_42_42]

I've always had extremely vivid weird dreams. Had no idea that wasn't "normal"?

[Seraph]

Stress can cause a lot of weird things. Like odd dreams.

You're under a fair bit of stress right now. What if you do something physical in the evenings, to wear out your brain? Go for a walk, play house-tag with the kids (no running, hiding is ok), or something along those lines.

Heh, you know that's true. Should probably do more stress relievey stuff for sure...

I've always had extremely vivid weird dreams. Had no idea that wasn't "normal"?

Well, it's not the typical thing for me at the least, lol. I used to only have the occasional weird dream, having them every single time I drift off is just out of the norm for me.

[Chanlin]

Many of the tips for lucid dreaming would help as others have suggested.

The easiest one to learn IMO is to train yourself to be able to recognize that you are dreaming and wake up whenever you want to.

This simply involves training yourself to do reality checks.

There are two simple methods of this.

1: Get into the habit of tracing how you arrived where you are presently. In dreams it is almost always impossible to trace a logical flow of getting from point A to point B such as, I got in my car, I took main street, then I turned down 5th street, and now I'm at the grocery store.

2: Check the time, then 5 seconds or so later check it again. This goes back to the logical time flow in asking how you got from point A to point B. In dreams things like clocks, written words and so on tend to change when you look away from them.

Doing these two things and training your brain that not being able to answer question 1, or inconsistent time as in question two means that your dreaming is the simplest way that I have read and used that lets your recognize you are dreaming. I won't say that I always 100% of the time notice it, but I can confirm that I have tried these techniques and they do work for me.

[DaisyQueen]

I hear you, Seraph. I've been a nightmare sufferer for years and found little relief. Tried everything and it all failed. Except one thing. I fall asleep to old episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. It's the weirdest thing. I used to hate that show when I was young but we got the first season for my dad's birthday several years ago. We happened to pull it out a couple months ago and watched it and for some reason, I find it very soothing now. Maybe it's that life seemed so much easier and calmer then but it put me to sleep with no dreams at all. I try not to use it every night as I don't want to use all its magical power but it works when I use it about once a week.

[PandaHat]

Just in general, try googling sleep hygiene. It would give you some tips on improving your sleepy-time routine, hopefully giving you a better chance of a restful night.