Cannot find an explaination anywhere

[swillis]

Okay, so this will be stupid compared to all the other nightmares people described but I have no idea what it means and it has caused me A LOT of bother. I rarely have nightmares and for the most part the nightmares are generally normal dreams with a 'strange' feel to them. I know it's a nightmare because of how I emotionally feel not because of what's going on in the dream. Stupid I know. Last night I had a nightmare where I literally woke up screaming. That's only happened one other time in my life and I was a young kid. Then my nightmare was so bad I actually somehow got out of bed and hid under it without waking up. Last night's dream was, well, unusual. There were no monsters, death, snakes, large animals, shadows. Nothing to indicate it was a nightmare at all. Maybe I should tell you that I am a very vivid dreamer. I am always aware I am dreaming and I have the capacity to change my dreams like changing the channel on a t.v. I was dreaming about nothing paricularly interesting and actually think (you know the fog of memory has taken hold since waking and actually dreaming) I was in the process of switching from dream to dream when a long vertical, slightly irregular black line showed up and scared the begezus out of me. Not startled. Frieghtened. Even though I knew it was just a line it scared me to look at it or think about it. It blinked away and then showed up three more times. Frieghtening me to the extent I was screaming in the dream and out loud in the real world. But I knew in the dream and even now, knew clearly it was just a black verticle line. Similar to those lines you would see on the screen of an old movie at a theatre. I have no idea what it meant or why in the world it would freighten me. Like I said my nightmares are so infrequent that when I actually have one it disturbs me to the point of almost obsession. I don't dream the future, but my nightmares have always had a close connection to reality and have generally been my subconscience's way of warning me of something it picked up on and my conscience overlooked. Since this dream was SO disturbing I am worried about what it may mean. If I can't figure it out I stress I will end up making some huge mistake due to ignorant action that afterward I will smack my forehead and so, "OOOOH! That's what it meant." I hate the whole hindsight thing so if anyone knows what the heck this line could possible represent I would be hugely greatful.

[Icewall42]

I wouldn't feel ashamed at all about this. The mind is a very powerful instrument, so it can make you feel terrible moments of fear no matter what you are, or aren't dreaming about. Basically, a nightmare is more about how you felt than what you actually dreamed out--it's just that many nightmares, especially mine, get this horrible fear paired up with bad images. But that's not always the case.

I can see why a black line such as you described could be so terrifying. I can just imagine why it's scary. As to what it means... that's really hard to say. Without knowing anything about your waking life, I would say you were terrified because your mind stopped dreaming, in a way. You said you have vivid dreams, but very few nightmares--would you say you really like dreaming? Maybe your mind, for whatever reason, was bumped out of its normal routine, and like a movie, the dream film slipped out of the reel and gave you that black line. You might have been scared because you were bumped out of your normal routine of dreaming, and were maybe frightened that this was the end of dreaming.

That's a very BIG guess on my part, so it may or may not be right. It sounds like what you had was a night terror. I know there are lots of books about night terrors, so those might be worth looking into. Night terrors differ from nightmares in that sleepers will often scream in the middle of the night and be very hard to wake up (meaning that getting up and hiding under the bed won't wake up the dreamer).

Anything really sudden or stressful going on in your life that you can think of? Dreams are often connected with waking life, though not always in obvious ways.

[sarahxmuffins]

Yes I understand where you are coming from. Your dreams that you are having are not scary but right when you woke up you were confused right? Ive had the same thing happen to me 3 times. Im 13 years old right now. I dont understand that they mean but they all have to do with me loosing someting. Well except the 3rd dream. I dont remember the first time it happened to me but when I was about 5 I had a dream about a map and I lost it. I woke up crying in confusion. My 2nd dream was also odd. I was in a white big/ wide room that seemed to go on forever. I was ontop of this ledge and there was another ledge on the other side of the room. In between me and the other ledge was just big deep open space. I was playing a "toss the ball" type of game back and forwarth. I wasnt tossing to anyone it would just come back to me as I threw it. I reached all the way up to 99 and dropped the ball. I woke up screaming and running around and darting threw my house trying to find my family. The dream wasn't even scary or frightening in any ways, but my reaction was the thing that scared me the most. Why did I react like that? That I dont know. This happened when I was around the 3rd grade. My last odd dream was when I was about 9 yeard old. I was walking forward and looking to my left at these flowers that had very light [baby colors]. They were kinda one inch off the floor and they were spreaded out and large. This was all in a very white and large room. After looking at the flowers I looked around and things started to get brighter and brighter until I woke up. SHOCKED and screaming. None of those dreams were scary but they were confusing and simple. Just like yours. I still dont understand why ive had these dreams but I would like to know what they mean.

[Jennings]

Read Dr Stephen LaBerge's books on lucid dreaming which should help you. You appear to be a lucid dreamer.Your reaction to the vertical line may indicate that you are uneasy about new surroundings or circumstances. Your response almost sounds like the result of a deep-seated childhood fear. The line does not appear to indicate anything malevolent.