Meditation and Nightmares

[180]

So for the last week I've been doing mindfullness meditation.

Anyways, I've been getting really bad nightmares. The thing is though for almost 8 years I almost never have nightmares and usually my dreams are amazingly fantastic... almost always.

So to the question. Does anyone know how mindfullness meditation affects dream states? I've read that SSRI medication alter serotonin and can alter brain chemistry so it causes more nightmares. So meditation is increasing serotonin and causing me to have crazy ass nightmares.

[bluestar]

Just the "Shadow Self". Nothing in the universe is all sweetness-and-light, including our subconscious(es)
Meeting and facing the Shadow Self is definitely an important stage in spiritual development.

[ChrisGinsburg]

You can think of meditation as stirring up the mud on the bottom of the lake that is your mind. It is inevitable that many repressed memories, thoughts and feelings will rise to the surface. Your subconscious then gets to work trying to sort it all out in a dream state if it's too much for you to handle consciously. We are really only presented with as much as we are able to handle at the moment. The subconscious acts as a dam. Slowly widening and closing based on your preparedness to handle things.

[veloci]

If you believe in the spiritual realm, you might be on the receiving end of some dark entities. Of course your guides might be trying to tell you something as well.

If you want to look at this from a naturalistic perspective, then indeed it may be the chemicals that are causing this.

Meditation no doubts help you become more aware though, so it could also do what ChrisGinsburg said.

In the end, I see it as a combination of all three. Good luck!

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by ChrisGinsburg

You can think of meditation as stirring up the mud on the bottom of the lake that is your mind. It is inevitable that many repressed memories, thoughts and feelings will rise to the surface. Your subconscious then gets to work trying to sort it all out in a dream state if it's too much for you to handle consciously. We are really only presented with as much as we are able to handle at the moment. The subconscious acts as a dam. Slowly widening and closing based on your preparedness to handle things.

Originally Posted by bluestar

Just the "Shadow Self". Nothing in the universe is all sweetness-and-light, including our subconscious(es)
Meeting and facing the Shadow Self is definitely an important stage in spiritual development.

Like what these two said, meditation is spending time alone with you. Any subtle insecurities, fears or haunts you drowned out with distraction are going to come screaming out of the dark. The aim is to sit tight until all the demons are accounted for or when nothing scares you anymore

[infinitytruth]

Try mindfulness AS you sleep. I had some of the best dreams I ever had because of mindfulness during sleep. Most realistic music I ever heard too in a dream from mindfulness.

On top of that, mindfulness during sleep can actually be used to pull the cord on nightmares. I experienced that the one time. I was having amazing dreams then it was slowly shiftig to ghost possession and giant whales (stuff that scares the **** outta me).

Anyway I realized it was a dream and forced myself awake before anything happened. There was like a shock sound and then I awoke. Like the cord being pulled while the electric was still going. It was amazing.

Mindfulness while you sleep is f'n amazing if you can launch it properly. I wouldn't quite call it being lucid because you aren't aware you're dreaming. At least I wasn't. Haven't been able to do it since all that happened though. One time. But it was pure amazing.

[HeartNotes]

Following infinitytruth's point there about puncturing the dream yourself:

Yeah, when I lucid dream as I approach a waking state (since I have insomnia, that can be a lot of times during the night) I used to be disturbed by how ... violent I could be in my dreams.

Over time, I kept on having sleep paralysis and that horrifying dream where I wake up and it was all a dream... and I'm still dreaming. Repeat 20x times in rapid succession for true solipsist terror.

Anyway, I began to act out against the figures that I knew were dream constructs and unreal, destroying the "set" and "characters" until the horror of my actions forced me awake. In this case, it was—I believe—a fairly ordinary dream but I was struggling to wake up and failing and my aggression about that turned onto the scene itself.

I was very much aware that I was dreaming, but powerless to stop it and created my own nightmare. Even worse, my own deepest fear is that I will lose control of myself and hurt those that I love until I am left alone.

I didn't really have a point with this story except to say that it's definitely possible to crumble a dream consciously if I'm right on the edge.

The thing I want to master is "crafting" the dream slowly and extending a dream that I really like throughout the night and keep on coming back to it. I'm sure we've all had those: really powerful or unique dreams, funny dreams, intimate dreams, interesting or tense dreams that you want to see through to the end...

[GranDiosa]

I had a mayor nervous breakdown when I started to meditate. I would go to a convent with a meditation group and did a few times a 5 day meditation and once a 10 day meditation. After the 10 day meditation I had a psychosis (related to Jesus and his crucifixion). Doing so much meditation was like opening Pandora´s box, so I do believe that meditation does lift the lid of repressed stuff. I believe meditation is great (I still meditate but not nearly as much) so I think my mistake was to meditate so much knowing that I was covering up a whole bunch of crap just in order to survive.

I really hope your nightmares go away with the advice you have been given here.

x

[downthesun]

I can relate with infinitytruth; since practicing meditation and mindfulness, my dreams have become amazingly vivid. Some dreams I have seem to go on for hours (in dream time), and lucid dreaming has been occurring more frequently.

I still get "nightmares", but the funny thing is I don't experience much fear in these sorts of dreams anymore. It's as if part of me knows that in this dream state there's nothing that can truly hurt you, just like watching a scary movie.

[infinitytruth]

Originally Posted by downthesun

I can relate with infinitytruth; since practicing meditation and mindfulness, my dreams have become amazingly vivid. Some dreams I have seem to go on for hours (in dream time), and lucid dreaming has been occurring more frequently.

I still get "nightmares", but the funny thing is I don't experience much fear in these sorts of dreams anymore. It's as if part of me knows that in this dream state there's nothing that can truly hurt you, just like watching a scary movie.

I get that EXACT same thing with nightmares. It's like I'm at the edge of my seat but I'm more fascinated then scared. Like the energy is way more amazing then scary.

I had this one dream that really should have been a nightmare. I was at this extremely beautiful mediterranean style (detailed as heck for a dream) castle as a thief and there were these axe murderers (there were various bloody body parts around the castle...kept me on edge) that owned the castle. Anyway they caught me and I was like "Don't call the police! Please!" They're like "We don't call the police on intruders! We axe them up and bury them in the garden!" Anyway I didn't even put up a fight. I was more scared of having the police called on me. I was like "Okay" and they laughed that I didn't even put up a fight like their other victims.

So I'm in this grand entrance (beautiful like the rest of the castle) and the butler (There is a mistress too. The only other two in my dream...owners of the castle) grabs this axe and I seen an opportunity to grab the axe handle, so I grabbed it and we began fighting for control over this axe.

...

This is where it gets really kind of comical...and a tad gruesome.

We start playfully swinging it over at the mistress, both of us are laughing. Shes like "Get him, you fool! Stop playing around!" Anyway I see opportunity in it, I make a huge swipe overpowering (I forgot another part of the axe fight somewhere where I began throwing pencils at the butler to distract him) the butler and swing it hard core into the mistress a few different times. It's oddly not at all gory but she dies in the event.

Then the butler screams "Noooo!" Whack whack! I kill the butler too in a fit of rage with almost no pause in between the mistress! Then I'm thinking about finding the garden to hide the bodies. I'm at this point again now where I'm deeply fearful of the police(I think that was the most fear I experienced in this dream was fear of prison). I grab this bloody shovel (which was strange) and then I woke up. I never buried the bodies, but I had dream guilt until I realized it was a dream.

That was absolutely one of the best dreams I ever had. Which might sound slightly psychotic. But it was a funny memorable ending. Could have been a real nightmare.

I've maybe two really scary nightmares in recent months that I really didn't enjoy at all. One was where my cat became demonic and began levitating with like pitch black eyes. I ran into the room to try to warn my mom by screaming, but nothing came out. That was an absolutely aweful feeling. I woke up 'sort of' (like it was really quiet controlled screaming) screaming. That one of the worst things I ever experienced.

[MacFly]

this site, and spiriutality overall, is full of pseudo-experts. if you read back, few years later EVERYBODY was praising meditation. how good it is, only do good for you.

now people're experiencing nightmares and psychosis, now you adjust your stupidity with "ohh it may releases old negative energy".

come on you have no idea what the hell is happening all you did is read 123 books and sites that people like you wrote.

[Pietko]

How can meditation cause nightmares? That is beyond me. When you are meditating, you are an observer; unbiased, untouchable... If not, you are not meditating. When I'm meditating, I perceive no body, only consciousnes in black void... and thoughts are coming and go without dwelling on them. No thought is so strong to change that state of mind. It is like you are not thinking, like thoughts are separate entities... They come and go... the longer you are in that state the fewer thoughts an memories is popping in ... at last there is only ME. All alone in the blackness. Free. Wanting nothing. Needing nothing. FREE.

I'm doing autogenic training meditations more than 26 years and I didn't have nightmares... never. I didn't have even autogenic discharges as was described in some book. And I'm doing it since I was 12 years old... If something, I lost many fears, I learnt to deal with heartsicknesses when needed, my memory(visual) became very good...

[Indigo4]

I've had nightmares for the past five years as well.(Sorry just realised you said you only just started getting them, you might not need the below advice after all)

Completely terrifying ones night in and night out.

Basically nothing would get rid of them until i found .....

"ROCK SALT"

you might not wish to do this because you have to scatter the salt around your bed and doorway to your room...looks weird and messy but hey presto.. the night i used ROCK SALT my nightmares completely vanished...

If you dont like the thought of the above you can try keeping a pint glass of water by your bed.. helps to a lesser degree (dont drink the water in the morning..chuck it away).

Hope this helps you and good luck

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by MacFly

this site, and spiriutality overall, is full of pseudo-experts. if you read back, few years later EVERYBODY was praising meditation. how good it is, only do good for you.

now people're experiencing nightmares and psychosis, now you adjust your stupidity with "ohh it may releases old negative energy".

come on you have no idea what the hell is happening all you did is read 123 books and sites that people like you wrote.

Every great spiritual teacher advises people to meditate, or at least makes it clear that he or she meditates. It is something I've taken note of because I don't really like to meditate, and yet every great spiritual teacher recommends it.

I wouldn't doubt that it's a good thing to have an experienced person for a guide when starting out with meditating, especially if nightmares crop up.