How Do You Stop Dreaming?

I've only had a handful of scary dreams in my whole life. Those were probably related to something I saw on TV or movies. Most of the time I have interesting dreams and sometimes I even know I'm dreaming while I'm in them.

 

I have recurring dreams. The most frequent one is I am alone and being chased by unknown predators with seemingly no way out of my situation. I have to physically wake myself to escape. I also still dream of smoking 20 years after giving them away. Then I chastise myself for falling into the habit again before I realise it is a dream. Weird eh.

 

The way I stop dreaming is to awaken.

Hal

 

You might have meant your statement to be somewhat less than serious but there is more truth to it than you may know.
I am nearly Always aware of my dream cycle and what is going on. If my dream is something I would rather not have happening, I can force myself out of the dream and wake myself in the process.
Since I learned how to control my dreams, I have set up a system of triggers which alert me before an event I may not like happens but if all else fails, I can still wake myself up before things get too radical.

The only event I cannot yet prevent from happening is when I get paralyzed and cannot move. I have taught myself not to get too anxious during the event and to simply wait it out.

 

Since your brain never stops working (thankfully), you will dream. If a drug turns your brain off, I'll cry at your funeral.

 

Not a problem with me but I don't know why or how I dream or don't dream. Most often I suspect I dream but don't remember.

 

I dreamed last nite that I owned a Totally Electric Car with hand controls.

 

That paralyzing event is very frustrating to me. My mind sometimes will tell me, just stay that way, yet, I fight like there is no tomorrow to break it.

 

When I was young, a child, I seemed to only have nightmares. You know the kind, you keep trying to wake up and snap out of it to make everything stop but you can't. Oh, I hated those. I couldn't seem to dream pleasant dreams for whatever reason. Now, as an adult, there are no more nightmares. They're just dreams. Last week it was my momma on a voicemail. She left me a brief but normal voicemail. I remember being very happy to hear her voice. I tried to call her back and the phone just rang and rang. That's when I suddenly woke. My momma passed away in 2016. I know, it's sad. But believe it or not, it felt good to hear her voice even though it was only in a dream.

 

It's not always easy to wake in the middle of a nightmare.

 

Occasional nightmares are a little hard to control but a reoccurring nightmare or nightmares with the same theme are fairly easy to avoid.
When I came back from Nam, I started having some real brain thumpers when I slept and was getting pretty paranoid about sleeping at all knowing what was.ahead.
Then it came to me to think about my dreams and what they were about and list the similarities in each nightmare. With the list in mind, I told myself that if any of those things on my list showed up, I was to wake up immediately. If a weapon of any kind came into a dream, I woke up. The same thing with a wounded person or even a person who even looked combative, I would wake up. No more cold sweats, no adrenaline surges and no more anxiety about going to bed.
It’s very similar to setting the clock in your head to wake up at a certain time. It works and I have taught the method to many vets with what is now known as PTSD and so far as I know, it worked for them also.

Oh yeah, one last thing but it’s a little off topic.
I have also taught people to memorize the 23rd Psalm if they found it hard to get to sleep. If one cannot sleep for whatever reason, simply say the Psalm in your head slowly and repeat it if necessary but I’ve never met anyone who has had to repeat it more than twice before going sound to sleep.

 

One way is to SHOUT!

An abrupt, real-life physical reaction can instantly take you into consciousness.

Then go to the kitchen and make yourself a snack, then back to bed.

H.P.

 

I think it's interesting that you were able to teach yourself those things. Way cool!

 

Yeah, I used to do a lot of “shouting” and the physical thing was my first wife trying to wake me up. And, as far as the snack thing goes, after I was shaken loose from my “sleep” I would go to the cabinet and grab my bottle of 100 proof Southern Comfort and drink until I passed out.
I knew there was a better way of living than with pills or booze which is why I developed my way of not having nightmares at all. In essence, I used my subconscious to trick my subconscious.