When I Have Nightmares, I Always See Them While Lying in the Room Where I’m Actually Sleeping

On a Japanese internet forum, someone posted about a characteristic of their nightmares. This started a discussion about “scary dreams.”

When I have nightmares, I’m always lying in the same room where I’m actually sleeping. I wonder why that is.

• [4]There are also dreams where you’re being chased outside, you know.

Really? I’ve never had one, not even once. It’s always the room where I’m sleeping.

• [17]Is there something in your room? Usually dreams aren’t that specific.

Even if I sleep at an inn or somewhere else, I see the dream as if I’m lying in that room.

• [22]Then perhaps something about you yourself…

Seriously. No way…

• [26]Hopefully it’s just your imagination.
• [15]I get it. It always starts in bed. Even when I realize it’s a dream, I can’t wake up easily, and I’m aware that I’m struggling.
• [16]And then you desperately try to wake up only to find that was also part of the dream, making you even more panicked.

That’s exactly the same for me. It repeats multiple times and I probably end up moaning, screaming, and finally waking up.

• [49]Sometimes when I’m falling asleep, I dream, and in the dream I mistake falling asleep for dying, panic, and wake up.
• [51]I’ve heard that babies cry when they’re sleepy because they can’t distinguish between sleep and death.
• [54]Ah, that really makes sense! Thanks. That’s the most insightful realization of my day.
• [18]This doesn’t apply to me since almost all my dreams turn into nightmares at the end…
• [21]I mostly have nightmares where I’m being chased and killed outside or falling to my death in unknown facilities. I don’t think I’ve ever had a nightmare that started in my room.
• [25]If it happens where you’re sleeping, that’s not a dream but reality… There’s definitely something there.

But I’ve seen a transparent Predator-like thing breathing by my pillow, and yesterday something was eating someone next to me. That would be strange if it were reality.

“Predator” refers to the vicious hunting creature from the American film “Predator,” which has the ability to become invisible.

• [32]Your body is probably sensing something “not good” and translating it into a form you can understand in your dreams.

Stress?

• [38]It would be nice if it were something scientific like that.

By the way, I don’t have any spiritual sensitivity at all.

• [29]In middle school, I had a dream where I was chased by a red Hyottoko mask, and since then I’ve been afraid of Hyottoko. Everyone laughs when I tell them, but it was really scary…

“Hyottoko” is a traditional Japanese mask with comical features, particularly with pursed lips.

• [31]Maybe that Predator is your guardian spirit eating evil spirits for you?
• [33]Oh, that’s possible.

It’s not always a Predator. I’ve also been strangled by some unknown figure and woken up screaming. And if it’s a guardian spirit, it shouldn’t scare me…

• [34]Isn’t that sleep paralysis?

While I’m seeing it, I can’t speak or move. But that’s obvious since I’m sleeping.

• [43]That’s almost the same as me. You might just be high-strung.
• [39]Then it’s sleep paralysis.
• [40]That’s typical sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis…?

“Sleep paralysis” is a condition where a person is aware but unable to move. In Japan, it has traditionally been considered a spiritual phenomenon.

• [42]It’s not really a nightmare, but a groundless terror that you can’t feel when you’re awake suddenly attacks you. The location is in your bedroom, indistinguishable from reality. And your movement is restricted (sleep paralysis?). I feel like if I don’t wake up, something terribly frightening will happen, so I struggle desperately, scream, and try hard to wake up (not sure if I’m actually screaming). Is this night terror? Another pattern is trying to turn on the light but it doesn’t work and I scream endlessly, or my teeth crumbling and falling to the floor continuously.

That’s exactly the same for me.

• [46]Sleep paralysis from fatigue can be enjoyable if you get used to it and turn it into lucid dreaming. It’s not good to be afraid because that leads to scary lucid dreams. I don’t know about spiritual sleep paralysis though.

Lucid dreaming is a dream in which the dreamer is aware they are dreaming. People who experience lucid dreams often report being able to control the dream situation according to their wishes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

I’m not moving my body and I don’t feel stressed, but maybe it is stress.

• [53]It’s not fatigue, but scientifically, sleep paralysis happens when your body is asleep but your brain is in a semi-awake state.

The explanation in [53] makes sense—when you’re semi-awake, you’re having AR-like visual hallucinations superimposed on the real world.

“AR” stands for Augmented Reality, a technology that overlays computer-generated information onto the real environment.

• [47]The scariest dream I ever had was walking through a town full of caterpillars to get to my parents’ house. At the end, I had to pass under a big tree, but caterpillars were falling like rain. I woke up after screaming “Aaaaaahhhhh!!!” while running to reach my destination. I wonder what that was about…
• [52]When I had a dream with just a scary “feeling” but no visuals, I was in my room. It was a feeling of numbness and anxiety running through my body, but no visual imagery. I guess the brain tries to make sense of it, resulting in sleep paralysis.
• [56]It was so scary that I tried to learn lucid dreaming (where you realize you’re dreaming and can control it), but because I’ve had too many nightmares, I’ve developed a habit of waking up immediately, so I couldn’t do it. I was really troubled by it a few years ago, but now that I don’t believe in spiritual things at all and have come to terms with it, it’s somewhat better. It’s tough that people don’t understand when you talk about it.
• [59]Another dream I had recently showed eerie candles flickering in my room, which was terrifying, but when I fully woke up, it was just the TV power light. It seems likely that as you struggle, you might slightly open your eyes and incorporate your room’s actual state into the dream.

Sorry I stepped away. I totally get that. I also thought something was peeking through the door gap, but it was just the door being half-open, and something that seemed like a person moving turned out to be just a backpack. Maybe I’m converting memories or images in my mind into something scary in my dreams.

• [69]I’ve never had nightmares except ones where I’m back in my exam prep days. How do you even end up having dreams about being chased by monsters or being killed?

“Ronin” in Japanese education refers to a period of studying for university entrance exams after failing the previous attempt. It’s often a mentally challenging time for many young people.

• [63]I understand. It’s like when your brain’s recognition abilities aren’t working properly during sleep, and that reflects your nervousness or vigilance.

I have experienced depression before, so mental factors are probably involved.

• [67]I’ve also been treated for depression. I feel that while awake you can put on a brave face to some extent, but when you sleep, your mental state becomes even more vulnerable.

I see. That might be it. But I’m relieved to find someone with the same, or almost the same, symptoms.

• [70]That’s good. It’s not something many people understand. I also felt lonely from not being understood, so I’m glad too. Well, it’s just a phenomenon that people with negative dispositions like us tend to experience more easily, so we shouldn’t worry too much about it.
• [66]When I was a child, I often had nightmares and couldn’t move or speak out of fear. Someone taught me that deep breathing helps. It works even in dreams, and since I started focusing on deep breathing when scared, I’ve had fewer nightmares.
• [71]Once I dozed off in the living room and had a terrible nightmare about witches, then woke up to find a TV program about witch hunts playing. I realized we can hear and understand quite a bit even while sleeping.
• [79]I work in a technical field, and sometimes I dream that things aren’t working properly, the equipment behaves mysteriously, and the more I try to fix it, the worse it gets. The heart palpitations and relief when I wake up are intense.
• [96]I totally understand. I wake up sweating and frantically check the date to confirm it was a dream.
• [99]Maybe it’s proof that you’re essentially sincere and serious.
• [80]I don’t have dreams in my room, but I do have them inside my house and around it.
• [82]I have that too. I regularly dream about opening the front door to find a red monster, then fleeing through the neighborhood. The scenarios are slightly different each time, like “Last time I was cornered here, so I’ll escape this way instead.” It feels so real.
• [92]Why do those chase dreams feel so terrifying? Dreams about being killed are also intense. I had a dream about being killed in my house hallway, and the sensation of my shoulder being stepped on, feeling the door frame under my chest, my vision narrowing, and the numbness spreading from my fingertips was really scary. I was deeply relieved when I woke up.
• [95]It’s scary, right? I also had a dream, not a scary one, where a language teacher made me swallow a capsule that was extremely bitter, and I woke up going “Bleurgh!”, but my mouth was still incredibly bitter even after waking up. Maybe there’s a connection.
• [97]Probably stomach acid or something coming up.
• [101]Yeah, I have acid reflux.
• [102]I have that too, but be really careful about vomiting in your sleep. I almost died once.
• [93]My chase dreams changed to fighting dreams after I got into FPS games. They became less scary.

“FPS” stands for First Person Shooter, a genre of video games where players experience the game from the protagonist’s perspective in shooting battles.

• [104]I often wake up at night and see a wall clock with dolls on it, but when I fully wake up, there’s no clock. I remember I threw it away 2-3 years ago when it stopped working. So it was just a dream.
• [106]There was talk about lucid dreaming earlier, but back then something similar was called astral projection. In middle school, I had a classmate who was into that astral projection thing, which is close to what we now call lucid dreaming, and he often told me about his experiences, but during summer break he suddenly died. I don’t know if there’s a connection, but it scared me too much, so I’ve never tried it and probably never will.

“Astral projection” refers to an alleged paranormal experience where consciousness or spiritual body leaves the physical body and travels to distant places. It has no scientific basis but is often discussed in occult contexts.

• [108]That was really popular for a while. My elementary school teacher used to talk about it all the time.
• [115]What people used to call astral projection seems to be similar or almost the same as what we now call lucid dreaming, based on those who’ve experienced it. I’ve heard that if you continue with lucid dreaming, you might see a scary woman in your room who’s still there no matter how many times you wake up. Even if it’s not a ghost, it seems like it could be quite a burden on your mental or physical state.
• [117]Stop with the scary astral projection stories, please. That kind of thing gets imprinted and affects my dreams during projection.
• [148]I was searching for something similar to what [115] and [1] described in “Shin Mimibukuro” and found a video. It’s scary no matter how many times I watch it.

“Shin Mimibukuro” is a famous Japanese ghost story series, consisting of books and visual adaptations based on allegedly true scary stories.

• [109]I just remembered I also had a dream with only a feeling of terror. When I was in kindergarten and had a fever over 40°C from the flu, I dreamed that the main child characters from Crayon Shin-chan were standing on the stage in the kindergarten auditorium, with something like the scoring lamps from a costume contest next to them, and the lamps were lighting up one by one. But I had this overwhelming feeling that when the lamp reached the top, something terribly frightening would happen. I saw this dream repeatedly in a loop and (though I don’t remember this) apparently shouted “Help me, Action Kamen!!” and jumped up, startling my mom. After jumping up, I also hallucinated that High Gure Demon Lord (a villain from a Shin-chan movie) was standing in my room laughing maniacally, and I panicked.

“Crayon Shin-chan” is a popular Japanese anime, “Action Kamen” is a hero character from the show, and “High Gure Demon Lord” is a villain from one of the movies.

• [118]Shin-chan is quite the nightmare factory, isn’t it? I’ve had dreams like this too. And I remember certain scary episodes making me tremble as a child.
• [120]The one where Hiroshi and Misae become robots is still a bit scary even now! I think it’s close to a fundamental fear of seeing people who should absolutely be your protectors turn into something unknown.
• [122]This one is designed to implant trauma: https://m.facebook.com/videos/561241/
• [126]Scary…
• [137]I think this is what Westerners feel as fear toward the Cthulhu Mythos.

“Cthulhu Mythos” is a fictional mythology created by American writer H.P. Lovecraft, featuring inhuman deities. It’s characterized by descriptions that break down Western concepts of religion and sacredness.

• [140]Indeed, the concept of “blasphemy” is hard for Japanese people to grasp, but it makes sense when put in context like this. I don’t know how much I’ve been mentally helped by temple-born T-san. It will apparently be featured in this season’s “Otherside Picnic.”
• [132]I sometimes find comfort in this kind of horror. It’s like recapturing the excitement I felt as a child.
• [133]Yeah, dreams are basically horror, aren’t they? That’s interesting.
• [141]”Demon Slayer” probably also stems from such fundamental fears.

“Demon Slayer” refers to the popular manga and anime “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,” which tells the story of fighting demons in the Taisho era of Japan.

• [146]Well, I’m going to sleep now. I’ve had quite a bit to drink and got really into this nightmare discussion!
• [147]Drinking alcohol, talking about scary stuff, and then going to sleep? You’ve got all the elements for having a nightmare, lol.