Nightmares?

Question

If anyone can explain this, or have some knowledge about any of it, please inform! I am quite curious.

Since my mother died in 1997, I havn't had any nightmares. I just dont get them anymore. Is this normal? Why?

Once I was almost asleep, but I heard an evil laugh (It sounded like I would describe an evil laugh, slow and deep). I could feel I wasn't awake when the laugh started, but it stretched out for about 6 seconds or so, and at least four of them I was wide awake staring at the roof (which was bright with glow in the dark stars [dont laught, im renting the room adn it belongs to a small boy] indicating it wasn't a long time ago that I turned the lights off). This laugh kinda freaked me out at the time, and the sound echoed through my head for quite some time. This must have been a dream of some kind, but can anyone explain it otherwise?

No I dont use drugs or alchohol and no my mother didn't abuse me she was a wonderful person (I was 12 when she died of a stroke)

Answer 1

As a Christian I don't have nightmares. What I learned was the old devil uses things that have been on your mind and then somehow brings them out in your dreams, but once I started praying and reading scriptures before I went to bed the nightmares stopped. Now, I work in a Prison and I have heard that laugh before, almost like it came from the other side because none of my inmates were laughing or at least I couldn't see any but it lasted about 10 seconds. I believe it comes from the spiritual side, and it was scary. There is a verse in the bible in proverbs that says Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. Chapter 16:7, by believing in this verse and by living it I stopped the nightmares. Fortunately you are not having and that is a good thing, but that laugh has to be coming from the evil side. God would not try to scare you, but it does tell you one thing for sure and it is that as sure as there is a devil there is a God.

Answer 2

I had a nightmare where i heard evil laughter and it was so loud i had to cover my ears and was crying cuz it wouldn't stop. I was on a certin medication for nerves and thats what caused it for me I had to take it cuz I have a disease called RSD which causes chronic nerve pain. (I'm off that med now after that experiace) My doctor did ask me if there was a history of mental illnesses in my family. Which i do so he said the medicine triggered it. If it keeps up I would tell your doctor. It could be that you never healed from her death. Sorry to hear about her death that is good that she was a nice person so you have good memories of her.(Your not crazy by the way :-)

Answer 3

Sorry about your mother. NIghtmares can be caused by many things, things you experience during the day, stress on your mind, and even what you eat! For example, if you are hypoglycemic and your body starts to needs glucose while u sleep, you could have nightmares. I'm sure there are more explanations. It doesn't have to be supernatural or scary. If you believe your mother watches out for you and somehow keeps you from having nightmares or be affected by negative energies, then that sounds positive :-)

Answer 4

well, nightmares apparently are discovered to help you resolve problems/fears you have personally, just like any other dream. nightmares help you come face to face with what you fear most. as far as the evil laughs when you are wide awake, if it wasn't in your head, then i'm not sure what they were. the laughs could have been anything.

Answer 5

Maybe some tought in your head, the vibrations arent real, but your ears can hear them. It's just when you are a bit scared or thinking to far to ghosts etc... If you dont believe me, ask your science teachers at school, I am sure they can declare it.

Answer 6

u might be experiencing a form of OBE (out of body experience) or sleep paralysis. u should do some research on it. i've had it many times. u will hear things, and have hallucinations, yet your brain is wide awake. its scary!!! i hate it! luckily it doesnt happen too often for me, it scares the crap outta me. good luck with finding out about it.

Answer 7

*** g81 4/22 pp. 26-28 What Did That Dream Mean? ***

What Did That Dream Mean?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Brazil

‘GLANCING over my shoulder I could see a huge, hideous creature galloping to overtake me. Unarmed, and practically naked, I tried to run. My feet seemed glued to the ground! One more look behind me and . . . Then I saw this fire engine racing down the street, its bell clanging. And I woke up in a cold sweat, to hear my alarm ringing!’

Does that dream sound familiar to you? Perhaps so, for it contains the essential elements of common dreams: an unpleasant experience, unusual dress, a rapid change of scene, inability to run, with part of the action stimulated by a sound in the bedroom. Happily, we wake up in time to escape!

But what does the dream mean? Why do we dream? Are some dreams prophetic?

Interest in Dreams Not New

Interest in dreams is about as old as mankind. The first dream recorded in the Bible was had by Abimelech about 1900 B.C.E. (Gen. 20:3) Several dreams of divine origin experienced by the Hebrew patriarchs are also recorded therein. Concerning dreams among pagan nations, we read: “Babylonians had such trust in dreams that on the eve of important decisions they slept in temples, hoping for counsel.” The Greeks and Romans did likewise. Egyptians prepared elaborate books for dream interpretation. In medieval Europe and even 60 years ago in Moslem society, important matters of state were decided on the basis of dreams. Is there reason to believe that those dreams were of divine origin and, hence, the decisions made were on a solid basis? How about the interpreting of dreams today?

Sigmund Freud called dreams “the royal road to the unconscious” and attempted to interpret them on the basis of our repressed desires, especially the strong sex drive. However, the past few decades have witnessed much study of dreams in scientific centers, and the consensus is that Freud’s interpretation of dreams was overly simplified.

Study of Sleep and Dreams

Using electronic gadgetry of the space age, researchers have studied changes in brain waves and the activity in certain brain cells during the dreaming process. Science is still a long way from a comprehensive understanding of dreams, but some conclusions are now quite universally accepted. For example, it has been shown that everyone dreams, even those who vigorously deny it. Infants spend up to 70 percent of their sleeping time in the dream state, whereas adults spend only about 24 percent. Cats and many other mammals show brain activity during sleep, and it is believed that they also dream. Surely the sleeping dog is dreaming when it whines and barks as its paws twitch.

Experiments on human subjects indicate that sleep can be divided into stages. Beginning with a light sleep, we gradually pass through progressively deeper sleep until we reach the profound Stage IV. Then, after a lighter stage, we enter the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. As its name indicates, this stage is accompanied by darting movements of the eyes, as though the eyes were following rapid movements on a screen. Even though the eyes are closed, this movement is clearly visible to an observer. (European researchers call this stage “paradoxical sleep,” since a study of the brain waves reveals that the brain is functioning as if the body were awake.) REM sleep is generally a period of dreaming.

In this research the procedure is for the observer to awaken the sleeper when the period of REM sleep ends and have him relate his dream. It is found that it usually takes about 90 minutes for the sleeper to pass through all the stages of sleep, from Stage I through the REM period, after which the cycle begins again. One writer said: “The nightly pattern is as regular as the motions of the planetary bodies.” The initial period of REM sleep lasts for only five to ten minutes, but this gradually lengthens until the final period, which lasts about 50 minutes. In a normal night’s sleep, there is a total of 90 to 120 minutes of REM sleep, or dreaming. So you generally have a total of dreaming time equal to that of an ordinary movie. Not a bad way to pass the night, you say?

Unhappily, dreams have a habit of slipping away from us soon after we wake up, and we remember just the last one, if any. So we cannot tell anyone much about that full-length nocturnal movie! It is as recorded in the Bible book of Job: “Like a dream he [the wicked apostate] will fly off, and they will not find him.” (Job 20:8) For this reason, researchers will awaken the dreamer when the rapid movements of the eyeballs stop.

Why We Dream

Research indicates that some dreams are a product of our daily activities, sensations and thoughts. In What Your Dreams Mean, Ann Faraday states that “the majority of dreams in some way reflect what has preoccupied our minds during the previous day or two.” On the other hand, shell-shocked soldiers are often troubled for years by terrifying nightmares after their return from war.

Interestingly, some experiments show that “all of us seem to need our dreams, and the younger we are, the more necessary they appear to be. . . . By using drugs that selectively eliminate only REM sleep, researchers have proven that adults can survive long stretches without their dreams. At the same time, though, these dream-starved persons undergo subtle personality changes: They become increasingly abrasive and anxious, often unable to concentrate as well.” Confirming that dreams do play an essential part in our lives, another researcher stated: “REM periods (and hence dreams) are there for a reason, or reasons, and judging by the degree to which the body is involved, almost certainly an important one.”

Interpretation of Dreams

In view of all the factors involved in dreaming, it becomes increasingly clear why it is unwise to attach special significance to our dreams. Since everyone dreams nearly every night, should we feel that our dreams are unusual and have a special meaning? In one book, entitled “Sleep,” the writers declared: “The analysis of literally truckloads of dream stories, and the use of laboratory methods lend no hope that there will ever be a quick formula for understanding dreams.”

It is true that there are many who would interpret your dreams for you, but the differences of opinion among them are one of the strongest arguments against trying to attach certain meanings to your dreams. Dr. Rosalind Cartwright declared: “Probably the most impressive thing we’re finding out is the huge range of individual differences [among dream interpreters].” She also wrote: “Many psychotherapists still insist that they know the correct interpretation of your dream . . . apparently quite oblivious to the fact that their colleagues, on the basis of the same dream, may see quite different things for you.”

Rather than attempt to interpret dreams for others, the tendency among some investigators today is to teach persons how to interpret their own dreams. Since each person is acquainted with his own experiences and problems, it is felt that he is in the best position to deduce the meaning of his dreams. But have you ever tried to figure out what a surrealistic painter had in mind when he painted a certain picture? How many persons in a group would give the same meaning? That is just how varied dream interpretation can be, according to Dr. Calvin Hall.

One reason for this is, of course, that dream interpreters of different cultures give an entirely different meaning to symbols seen in a dream. For example, the Greeks believed that a snake seen in a dream meant disease, whereas the Egyptians felt it to be a beneficent sign of a settled dispute. So it is wise not to take too seriously any natural dreams you may have. But you can enjoy them. As one writer put it, dreams frequently are so funny that “I often wonder that people don’t wake themselves up laughing”!

On the other hand, if your sleep is often disturbed by nightmares, rather than looking for any meaning in them, it might be better to look for possible causes of them in your way of life. How true what the Bible says: “For because of abundance of occupation there are dreams”!—Eccl. 5:7.

Dreams of Divine Origin

Those who search for meaning in their dreams often point to divinely inspired dreams recorded in the Bible and ask, ‘Could not some dreams today also be inspired of God?’ It is true that in Bible times God did use dreams to communicate with his servants, as in the well-known dream of Joseph when he was warned to flee to Egypt with his wife, Mary, and their child, Jesus. God also sent dreams to men not devoted to him, as when he gave the prophetic dreams to Egypt’s Pharaoh announcing seven years of famine in the land.—Matt. 2:13; Gen. 41:1-7.

All such divinely sent dreams were given so as to protect or guide God’s servants, or to influence the successful outworking of his will and purpose. However, the apostle Paul wrote: “God, who long ago spoke on many occasions and in many ways [including dreams] to our forefathers by means of the prophets, has at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a Son.” (Heb. 1:1, 2) We have in the Bible a record of what God ‘spoke to us by his Son.’ So there is no need for Jehovah God to use dreams to speak to us.

Therefore, if you are wondering what the future has in store for you, or if you are searching for a solution to your problems, you can find the answer, not in an interpretation of your dreams, but in God’s Word, the Bible.