I have this 'dream' all the time, recently up to 4 times a night. The dream wakes me up very suddenly and when I wake, the skin on my arms feels as though it is burning, as though it is trying to crawl off my body, I can't touch it for a good few minutes until it calms down, it physically hurts. The dream is hard to describe, basically when I wake up I think that the shadows in the room are looking down on me, that all of my life so far has been a dream and now I have woken in the place that I have always been in, that place is a type of hell and I am totally alone in the dark. It takes me a few moments to recognise the safety of my own room, and that the shadows are just the curtains or a shoe or something! That I'm OK, but the dream leaves me scared and i never sleep a whole night through. I'm shattered at the moment cos this is happening so much. Has anyone got any advice? I have always had trouble sleeping and slept with the lights on until I was 18. I'm now 34 and this is getting ridiculous!! Any advice would be appreciated. XJ
Well, I certainly couldn't tell you what the dream may mean, but it sounds as though there are underlying (maybe supressed?) emotional issues from the past that may need to be cleared to allow you to be at rest.
Have a look in the [url]Mind Therapies forum[/url] at the different types of therapies that could help such as Hypnotherapy, NLP, EFT, FREEWAY-CER etc. There's also a wealth of information that may be beneficial if you search on the EFT website: www.emofree.com
Love and Reiki Hugs
Hi Julescariad
Well firstly, I was always scared of sleeping in the dark until the age of 27. I always thought shadows were looking down on me, that something was wrong, I felt a presence. I've had all sorts of ghostly experiences that have really scared me. I was always shattered growing up, as I hated sleeping on my own, and really these feelings were with me from age 0. They weren't taught by my parents or anybody, they were just an unfortunate reality.
I tried all sorts of things to get rid of these experiences, however the fear and experiences were always there - sometimes they would not come for a long time, and then one night, there they would be again. I spoke to many people about this, who all tried to help me with varying degrees of success - I tried reiki triangles, visualisations, telling ghosts to go away (which tended to make the experience MORE of a reality) - I honestly tried everything! One psychic told me I was a thai sorcerer in a former life, and all the people I had slighted upon, were coming back to haunt me! Boy, did I feel scared after that - not a particularly helpful diagnosis, and one that I think was totally irresponsible.
I can tell you with true assurance, that now, I sleep with black out blinds, an eye mask and ear plugs - I even shut my door - all things I would NEVER have done in the past, for fear of the unknown.
What helped me was simple. One day I was so totally fed up - I was telling my sister about my sleepless nights, when my flatmate over heard. My flatmate is experienced in matters of the mind, and told me to promise to try his technique - I said I would do anything, but it wasn't likely to work. He said, "everytime you see something or feel something, tell yourself it's all in your mind." Well, I never thought it would work, as I had tried similar things, but I did try it, and it did amazingly work, for reasons even today I don't completely understand. What I can say, is that I still believe everything I've seen and felt, but I can now open and close the door (in my mind) when I choose to. Every now and again I test this theory, and boy oh boy, it can certainly be opened again, but I now have the tools to close it.
So my advice would be to try it, and also to know that you are not alone in matters like these. Believe that you are totally in control of this, and you can beat it. I like to think that I'm lucky that I can experience something else other than this reality. It's special, and harnessed and used in the right way, it can be a positive thing. Please let me know how you get on. I really know how you feel, and would love to help you in any way I can.
x