First recurring nightmare - dreams

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Have you ever wondered what you child/partner/dog/cat is dreaming about when you watch their eyes speed around under their closed eyelids like a ballbearing dinging around a pin-ball machine?

Dreams are funny things aren't they? You can be having a good dream and not want to lose its thread when the alarm clock goes off. Try as you might you can only remember that Brad (or Angelina) was definately "yours" and "all yours", but you can't remember any of the other detail or how it made you feel (I'm guessing here that most of the feelings in this case would be good ones, but if it sounds like your idea of a nightmare, then substitute the above for James Bond, Jennifer Aniston, Edna Everidge - whoever turns you on!).

Speaking of nightmares, I would always have these dreams about being chased. It was a man without a face. I could never see that face no matter how hard I looked. I ‘d wake up in a sweat , my heart hammering.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? The faceless, nameless man in your dreams? Perhaps it wasn't a man that chased you but a monster? What kept you awake at night? What was it that you fretted over, made your heart thump or scared the bejeezus out of you? How did you really feel? Here are some recurring nighmare memories that you might jog your memory.....

The vortex

“I remember when I was one time for some reason I was sleeping in my parents bedroom. I think it must have been when people were staying in the house and I had to sleep on my parent’s floor while someone else took my bed. The curtains were brown and had great big cycadelic orange/yellow swirly things on them. A throw back of the 70’s! At the time there was a programme on the TV with similar colours in it. I used to have nightmares about those curtains where the whole room swirled and I was getting sucked into a vortex with Dr Who. It was scary!”

Glitter

“I used to have a nightmare dream when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I would be in my house and a plane would fly over. Mum would tell me the safest place would be for me to stand in the doorway between the kitchen and the hall. When I got under it the arch would release glitter. If the glitter landed on me I’d believe that I would turn down syndrome. I don’t know why. I would run away from the arch and into the garden to get away from the glitter. I was totally scared of standing in the arch. I would dream about this for about a year – oh shit the doorway, I’m down syndrome.”


Freddy

For a long time after I first saw Nightmare of Elm Street I dreamed about Freddy Cruger. It sounds weird saying it, given the whole thing is based around dreams and reality but I tell you, it scared the living day-lights out of me.

It seemed that I'd be having a nice, pleasant dream, when all of a sudden things would creep into picture. I'd generally see a glove first. Then some part of the picture would turn green and red – something wierd though, like the tree trunks or the sky – nothing normal.

Then the sound came into it and as soon as I heard the knived scraping on something, I knew I'd see Freddy.

You know, it wasn't me he was chasing, at least all the time. More often I'd see him from the sidelines, like I'm watching him "playing" with a victim who was no-one I knew (a faceless person). Then he'd kill then in a classic slashy way ala horror movie style.

Still, I felt scared rigid. I'd wake up with a start and be drenched in sweat. Then, you know how you try to turn it off and go back to sleep but when you close your eyes you just see his face and nothing else? That's what it was like. I'd stay awake and rock myself for a while before dozing off.

I think this went on for about six months or so. I never watched anymore of the Elm Street series for about two years. In part, I'll admit, because when my Mum found out I wasn't sleeping well, she banned me from watching or reading horror. I admit, I stopped watching Freddy as I said, but still read Stephen King, Dean Koontz and the like – in fact I still do!"