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Original poster

Anyone else still 'feel' bad dreams the next day?

24 replies

WrongWayApricot · 03/04/2022 12:29

I had a dream where I forgot my child at the park and went shopping. When I remembered him he was fine still sitting in the park. But when I woke up I still felt so horrible I know it's not real and nothing like that has even nearly happened in real life but it still makes me feel so sad and scared.

I often have vivid dreams and I hate it when I can't shake the feeling of the bad ones. They feel so real. Seems stupid that my brain is making up a scenario to make itself upset?

OP posts:

Igotchills · 03/04/2022 14:21

I can ‘feel’ dreams all day, sometimes into the next day. It’s horrible.
It’s odd how our own brain sabotages itself isn’t it?

Loopytiles · 03/04/2022 14:22

Only occasionally, when it’s a v bad dream like that!

EBearhug · 03/04/2022 14:28

Definitely. I have complained to a colleague (with whom I get on very well) that if they're going to run around in my subconscious at night, they could at least be nice. 😀

I have definitely had the sort of mood hangover, though. It goes both ways. I've felt calmer and more well-disposed to people after good dreams, but I probably remember more the ones where I wake feeling upset and unsettled.

3beesinmybonnet · 03/04/2022 14:31

I have nightmares when I'm too hot. I find the best way to shake them off before they take a hold is to put the radio on. Preferably some lively music to blast the bad dream out before I start dwelling on it.

ShouldersBackChestOutChinUp · 03/04/2022 15:22

Someone told me once that all the people in your dreams represent yourself. So the child is yourself. I'm not sure about that though.

Yes, I get very affected by dreams the next day and longer. I still remember a creepy dream from my childhood about Pongo Snodgrass, a character from Whizzer and Chips comic and it really haunted me.

Anyone else still 'feel' bad dreams the next day?

JoyLurking9to5 · 03/04/2022 15:28

Oh yes. Not as often as years ago luckily.

salcombebabe · 03/04/2022 15:39

I had a really bad dream a few years ago and felt so bad when I woke up that I couldn’t go to work that day! I was still ‘living’ the dream. It really affected me, I’ve never had a dream like it. It was about 6 months after I’d lost my husband, in the dream he was still alive and we were walking in a churchyard to go and get married then suddenly the grass opened up under him and he was gone!
At his funeral he was buried so I guess that must have been the link to the dream.

Squiff70 · 03/04/2022 15:39

Yes, although thankfully not often. About a year ago I had a dream that my partner cheated on me. It was so convincing that I barely spoke to him for a day and a half after the dream. Dreams, whilst so unimportant, can have a profound effect on us for reasons we can't always explain, however irrational our responses may appear.

Cherrysoup · 03/04/2022 15:45

My cat died in my dream (he’d been dead a while irl) and someone brought him to me. I was devastated and woke up crying. It affected me all day and I remember it as a very intense weird experience but usually I get over dreams ASAP.

Mimijamroll · 03/04/2022 15:52

Yes. I had a bad dream yesterday, as in disturbing and unpleasant and it did leave feeling disturbed all day.
Wish I could shake things like that off more easily.

Moppincraxy · 03/04/2022 15:55

Yes I get this nearly every day. I've always had weird and crazy dreams but these days the dreams stay with me all day. I hate it.

I also can remember dreams that I had years ago and sometimes revisit those places in my dreams. They aren't real places I've visited, they are places from a dream but its like I go back into a dream from years ago.

DH never even remembers his dreams and I'm very jealous!

GlazedDoughnuts · 03/04/2022 16:02

Yes. I've been struggling with fertility for 5 years. I've had a few dreams where I find out I am pregnant and wake up and feel so down. There was one dream a few months ago where I had a positive fr test, and everything about the dream was so real and vivid, I was in my bathroom at home exactly as it is in real life even down to a make-up stain on my wall. I actually woke up thinking I was pregnant because of how real the dream had seemed. Took a test to check and of course I wasn't pregnant. Cried for 2 days

Discountclaimed · 03/04/2022 16:36

I have days ne. Not recently though

merryhouse · 03/04/2022 16:38

Your brain's trying to tell you something.

Either it wants you to examine and address your fears about being a bad parent

or it's suggesting that perhaps you can start to let go a bit because chances are nothing bad will happen

or maybe something else

Relative likelihood of (1) and (2) strongly dependent on how old your child is, obviously!

(I woke up this morning thinking S2 (19) had died. Possibly a reflection of how we still worry about them even though they're grown up, possibly a metaphor for missing his childhood, possibly a mix )

merryhouse · 03/04/2022 16:40

Oh, missed this bit:

I find it's easier to get over the dream if I work out why I had it.

Laiste · 03/04/2022 16:47

Oh yes all the time. Good and bad actually.

I often seem to have 'forgotten one of the children' dreams. Even though 3 of my 4 are 20 somethings they are often all still little in my dreams and m dream will be bumbling along when i suddenly realise it's half 4 or 5 or something and just forgotten to pick them up from school, or just left them outside a shop or something

That sickening adrenaline rush of panic and worry sometimes wakes me up out of the dream there and then and stays with me for hours in real time.

DuckonaBike · 03/04/2022 16:48

I know just what you mean - I have occasionally had bad dreams that hung over me all day. I think it’s a way of processing things - it gets the feeling out of your subconscious mind and into your conscious mind so you can deal with it. Agree with Merryhouse that it’s good to work out why you had the dream.

MangoLipstick · 03/04/2022 16:49

I had a really vivid dream the other day about my dear late Nan - she passed about 8 years ago and it’s the first time I have dreamt of her.

In the dream, she was wearing a hat but it had soil and purple pansies growing out of it, I reached out to touch her face and there was all these Caterpillars crawling over her hat. My mum started picking them off and throwing them on the floor and they suddenly they grew massive. For some reason, it really disturbed me, both in the dream and when I woke up.

I felt totally fine the next day and so forth but just for that day, I still had that odd disturbed feeling when I thought about it.

DrBrennerFan · 03/04/2022 16:50

My nightmares are about my toxic family and can upset me for hours I feel for you I really do.

Northernsoullover · 03/04/2022 16:51

Last nights dream really upset me but I can't remember what it was about! I've felt bad all day about it 😂

Candleabra · 03/04/2022 16:53

I have terribly vivid dreams. Mostly they’re horrible and leave me feeling very upset.
I always thought the whole “dreams tell you something” was a load of rubbish.
Do you think my brain is trying to tell me something? I’ve had a lot of bereavements that I haven’t really dealt with and I’m under a lot of pressure generally.

SilverGlassHare · 03/04/2022 16:55

I’m on medication that has a side effect of vivid unpleasant dreams, and they often do stay with me the following day. Not much fun.

Candleabra · 03/04/2022 17:00

It’s horrible isn’t it. I really don’t feel fit for work the next day sometimes, but can you imagine the reaction to telling work you can’t come in due to a bad dream….

LemonViolet · 03/04/2022 17:01

I properly cried this morning recounting my dream to my OH. It was about a previous dog…..2 dogs ago!…..she was in doggy heaven going for a walk with a bloke called David, who had his own dog as well, and said he was looking after her for me till I got there. I don’t even believe in heaven, doggy or otherwise, but the emotion was so real it lasted all morning!

Since had a lovely walk with our current two doggos and blown most of it away

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