A Little Help with Nightmares

[Gabrielman]

Hello everyone, I need to ask you to pray for me please. For a long time now (years and years) I have been having horrible night mares that I can't get out of. I can't wake up, and I feel like someone else is controlling my body. They are very very horrible and I will not describe them on the board as kids can see this and they are too gruesome for them to be reading. Please just pray that God ends this torture that I am in.... I want a peaceful sleep for once, I used to sleep well.... but now I don't. Please pray this madness stops!

[cslewislover]

I will pray for you more about those!

[Gabrielman]

Thank you for your prayers! I am tired of night mares! I hope God hears them!

[zoegirl]

definitely pray for you!!! (the steroids can aggravate those, don't know if you are still on them)

[Gabrielman]

definitely pray for you!!! (the steroids can aggravate those, don't know if you are still on them)

Actually I have been off the steroids for a while, but this has been going on for years, I have just gotten to the point where I can't take them anymore. The most recent one was the worst of them all. Thank you for your prayers too!

[jlay]

I was going to ask if you are on any prescription or over the counter meds.
You said you quit taking steriods. Any other medications, sleep aids, etc?

If your dreams are not drug inhanced, I would encourage you to start taking very specific notes of what you are dreaming. I had some very disturbing dreams just prior to the economic collapse. I never took the bible's words to apply to what I was dreaming, so I just thought they were nightmares. Later I have come to know a dear friend who is very versed in prophetic dreaming. I am a conservative Southern Baptist, so you can imagine how bizarre this all was to me. I have since had a couple of dreams, and without his counsel I would not have known what they meant. Do not trust any dream if you are taking ANYTHING. Nyquil, benedryl, alcohol, anything. All of these can affect dreaming. If you are getting clean sleep, do NOT dismiss these dreams as an inconvenience. No matter how bizarre or disturbing the dream may be.

This is biblical.
"'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." Act 2:17

[zoegirl]

HOwever, stress can also affect sleep, so can medical issues.

When I was very sick, I also had the worst sleep.

First and foremost, you have struggled with being sick. I would be cautious about interpreting anything when your physical state has been compromised.

I guess the line of questioning should be

1) What have you tried non-medically (exercise, prayer, milk...before sleep?)
2) Have you tried anything medicinal? (sleep-aids)?
3) What is their frequency?
4) Do they tend to have some relevance to something that happened during that day or week? (not asking for details here, for instance, if I have had an awful thing happen that day or I am anticipating something, I will have the awful dream about it.)
or
5)Are they about things that are totally irrelevant to day-day events
6) Do they tend to occur at a certain time during the night?
7) Can you remember the dreams or are they more vague terror feelings
are you on a good sleep schedule? (going to bed same time, full 8 hours)

It's not unheard of for adults to struggle with nightmares.

[jlay]

Yes Zoe,

That is why I was very specific in asking about meds of any kind.

Gabriel. First let me express my sympathy for what you are going through. I have suffered from sleep problems since my youth. I am very serious about prayer, and very serious about seeing God's will be done. WE must always handle prayer with the utmost respect to the will of God, and pray in the spirit and in His will. Both of which we are enabled to do IN CHRIST. Amen. We have had a request for prayer. We should ask, "is the request in the will of God." Since the bible talks about dreams and visions, it is important to see what is the catalyst for these dreams.

If you are comfortable sharing in this thread or by pmail, I'd like to hear more about these dreams and your situation. Certainly, if your dreams are the result of health issues and are not of God, then we should pray for the relief of them. However, if they are the will of God, and are intended for His glory, then should we pray that they stop? Heaven forbid.

Dreams can be very disturbing. We learn from the bible that God has and will use dreams to communicate. That is a biblical fact. Some of those dreams can be very disturbing. Remember that revelation is a vision, and has very disturbing imagery. Also, we learn from the bible that people can have dreams and not understand them, and need someone to interpret. I am often amazed at how quickly Christians will dismiss the supernatural because it pushes them from their comfort zone, or their ideas of what should or shouldn't be.

[zoegirl]

ALl I'm saying is that we should examine things from all perspectives, medically, physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.

There are many causes of nightmares. God can use them, but that doesn't mean that He is.

[jlay]

Of course Zoe. We should always test the spirits. (1 John 4:1) I should have been more clear.

That is why I am curious to GM's situation, and the nature of the dreams. We can only acknolwledge the possibility that dreams can hold prophetic meaning. It is certainly balanced and sound to consider the other possibilities, and not jump to any conclusions. But not at the exclusion of the spiritual.

[Gman]

Hello everyone, I need to ask you to pray for me please. For a long time now (years and years) I have been having horrible night mares that I can't get out of. I can't wake up, and I feel like someone else is controlling my body. They are very very horrible and I will not describe them on the board as kids can see this and they are too gruesome for them to be reading. Please just pray that God ends this torture that I am in.... I want a peaceful sleep for once, I used to sleep well.... but now I don't. Please pray this madness stops!

Gab, can I ask you a personal question? Do you ever watch horror movies or read horror books?

Thanks,
G -

[Gabrielman]

Gab, can I ask you a personal question? Do you ever watch horror movies or read horror books?

Thanks,
G -

Good Question, but no luck, as I find that kind of thing boring, but you were wise to ask. I know why I am having night mares, well most of them anyway, but I just can't get them to stop. I have a variety of night mares and I may share them on the board, I don't know yet, but I will tell you one of the ones I have had between the others. It has to do with my mothers death. You see I watched her die before my very eyes, and well.... I can never forget that day... it was the 4th of July, a day I don't celebrate anymore, she died by a massive heart attack brought on by her lungs and kidneys filling with fluid, she tried to get help, to grab a near by phone next to her bed, but she couldn't, my dad woke up to see her, convulsing and gagging and then, stillness, I didn't see all of it, but I watched her being taken out of the house, the look on her face.... and she was still alive, still suffering, you could see her trying to live.... we didn't want her to suffer. Well ever since then I have nightmares about it in a different way. See the night she died she had asked me to stay up with her and scratch her back, she had a lot of diseases and one of them made her itch a lot and she couldn't sleep. I told her no, I had to work the next morning. Well I told her good night and that I loved her, all she said was good night... Now I will have dreams of her off and on, laying on a hospital bed with doctors trying to save her one moment, and then the next, I am holding her heart in my hand and there is blood everywhere, and I am standing there in front of her, and she has that look on her face like I betrayed her.... she is laying there dead.... and there is nothing I can do! The docs are gone, and she is looking at me with those eyes... she was the only human that had remotely loved me. Had I stayed up that night she could have lived, maybe they could have helped her if I had just been there... I was so helpless the day she died... there was nothing I could do. After she was gone I had no one to comfort me or give me love, they helped my bros cause they acted out, and my sis too cause she was young, but I couldn't get them to help me, it was like they didn't take me seriously. She couldn't give me much love, she was too sick all of the time and with four kids and my dad she just couldn't be with us all. I cherished every moment with her... and I will never get another one again My family then began to play the blame game and fight over money too and life just fell apart from there, and ever since then those nightmares happen from time to time.... when I am not having the other ones.
Fortunately I have someone who loves me and cares about me and has been talking with me about this for a while, and she has helped me a lot with it, just listening and comforting me. It is still very painful, and even now is hard to write about, but I am glad I have her as if she hadn't helped me with this and much more I wouldn't be alive today, I would have died of all the pain I had kept in. Thank you Vicki You are too good for words!
That is just a bit of the nightmares I have, like I said, there are more and they are very very disturbing and well I might put them on the board, IDK but there you have one. I know the reasons I have nightmares, I just want them to stop.

HOwever, stress can also affect sleep, so can medical issues.

When I was very sick, I also had the worst sleep.

First and foremost, you have struggled with being sick. I would be cautious about interpreting anything when your physical state has been compromised.

I guess the line of questioning should be

1) What have you tried non-medically (exercise, prayer, milk...before sleep?)
2) Have you tried anything medicinal? (sleep-aids)?
3) What is their frequency?
4) Do they tend to have some relevance to something that happened during that day or week? (not asking for details here, for instance, if I have had an awful thing happen that day or I am anticipating something, I will have the awful dream about it.)
or
5)Are they about things that are totally irrelevant to day-day events
6) Do they tend to occur at a certain time during the night?
7) Can you remember the dreams or are they more vague terror feelings
are you on a good sleep schedule? (going to bed same time, full 8 hours)

It's not unheard of for adults to struggle with nightmares.

1) Nothing really, I pray each night but not about sleep, just that the Lord keeps me and holds me close. Okay and a glass of milk with cookies upon occasion!
2)No, that stuff never worked when I was younger so I decided they were worthless, lol
3)Nearly every night with different one aside from the ones with my mother which are always the same...
4)No, aside from my mother, they are just like being tortured and seeing things that now I can't get out of my head no matter what I do.
5)Yes
6)Not sure, I go to sleep and don't really notice, but I can't wake up from them either and they feel very real.
7)I can remember them quite well, I wish I couldn't, but... well I can and the terror is always there even when I wake up...
8.) Yes, about 5am here (I work a late job but these dreams have been going on for a very long time since before that, but not before my mother died so I don't know how much she plays into it all)
I will answer the other questions later okay? Jlay, about taking notes, you are not the first to have said that, and yet I ignored it before, but you make a good point about that. A lot of them are not related to my family or mother in anyway and I should write them down and see why I am having them. Maybe if I post them you all can help me out. Not sure if they have to deal with future events, I have had a few like that and some have come true, but that is a whole other topic and those were not nightmares. My nightmares are just torture, I would rather be water-boarded than have those night mares!!!!
Thank you all for your help, and prayers, God Bless! If you need to know anything just ask or pm me. I prefer the board though

[zoegirl]

I will keep praying. The one about your mother is certainly understandable!! Definitely stress related.

[August]

Gabrielman, I'm sorry to hear about your problem. I will certainly keep you in my prayers.

I lost my dad 18 months ago, also to a heart attack, and wonder about the same things...could I have saved him were I there? In the end, I was the one that presided over his funeral, and it was probably one of the toughest things I've ever had to do. I spoke about the hope that God gives us, and how my dad had that hope also, for an eternal life in the arms of our Father.

You have to remember that while death is traumatic and terribly sad for us, it is the one thing that is inevitable, and is something that God tells us He decides over. I understand your regrets, there is not a single one of us who have lost a parent that would not give anything to just have one more conversation, have one more meal together or just be together one more time. God promises us that it will be so, we will be reunited with our loved ones in the presence of God in the next life, and that is part of the hope that we as Christians hold on to.

I sincerely hope that you can make peace with yourself over this issue. It was not your fault, it was a sovereign decision from God. I pray for your peace, and that you will be released from the curse of nightmares.

[jlay]

I cherished every moment with her... and I will never get another one again

Ahh, but there is hope.

GM, that is a very sad story. Thanks for sharing. I know that is not easy. I learned more about you in one post, than in every other combined.

Dreams are a very real experience, especially for those who dream vividly as you do. Often the mind will manifest things in dreams that are haunting us in our subconscience.

There are a lot of people in the Christian community who see dreaming as a very spiritual thing. And there is biblical evidence to back it up. You are dealing with some very tough emotional scars. And it sounds like they are still unresolved.
Dreams can often have significant meanings outside of our own personal lives, but can also be very personal. In this case it sounds pretty clear that your nightmares are manifesting out of emotional scars in your family. Also, people and things in our dreams can have symbolic meaning. But it must always be looked at in context. A 'mother' appearing in a dream, can have many meanings. Because of your tragic loss, it is pretty evident that yours is due to the guilt you feel over that night.

So, what about praying for them to stop. Well, the reality is that God may be pushing you to deal with some things that are unsettled in your life. Even though you may be 'coping' in life, the reality is that you are still very torn by these events. The dreams are evidence of scars. Soldiers who have been in horrific battles will experience these same types of things. The body/mind has its way of coping. When we suppress, the body/mind will find a way to deal with it. When bad things happen to us and our loved ones, our response is often just to pray to make it stop. Pain, financial misforture, etc. But how many of us can testify that these difficult times were also some of the times of greatest spiritual growth. The church has always flourished under times of great persecution. This can apply personally as well. How curious it is that the people of faith we revere are the one's who have the greatest stories of tragedy and struggle. Jesus Himself was, 'a man of many sorrows.'

Now that we have some knowledge of what to pray for we can petition the Lord in wisdom. My prayer is that God will strengthen your inner man to deal with this, and to enlighten the eyes of your heart, that you know that the power of the resurrection working in your life.
Make sure you start journaling those dreams, and writing down the kinds of emotions they are causing you. Even the dreams that just seem like nonsense. Write them down. Get specific with objects, people(how they are dressed), settings, emotions you are feeling in the dream. You might even pray that God would use your dreams.