That's right folks, I want to see you post your... old dreams.
I was very young, 4 or 5, and I was taking a nap in the afternoon. In my dream my mom told me she would only ever make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner for the rest of my life. I liked spaghetti and meatballs, but I didn't want to eat only that forever. My grandmother woke me up because I was crying in my sleep.
This is my earliest memory.
I dreamed a dog bit me and everything went dark and I died.
How do you know you died if everything was dark?
Its weird how one just know stuff in dreams despite having no evidence. Sometimes I might even realise it was false when I wake up, despite being completely sure its true while in the dreaming.
Yeah it was just that weird omnipotent dream knowledge.
But what intrigues me is you seem to be suggesting that I would need light to see if I was dead? But how can you see once you're dead?
But how can you know you're dead once you're dead then?
It's dead simple.
So when I was little my room was arranged in a way that if I was in bed, my head was opposite the door. I would sleep with the door open so lying on my side I was looking out onto the landing. Our stairs were just outside my door and they were open to the living room below, I found the light and the vague murmuring of the tv to be comforting I guess.
Until I started having this recurring dream. I'd be lying in bed, looking out at the dimly-lit landing as per. I'd hear the tv get turned off and my parents start to climb the stairs, also as per. But when they got to the top and came into view they wouldn't be my parents at all, they were....dun dun duuuuuun...big scary dragons! They'd see me looking and come into my room and stand menacingly over me, and then I'd wake up.
I started shutting my bedroom door after that.
For me, it was a reoccurring nightmare that was more of a feeling than some story or vision. It’s really hard to explain, but it always followed the same pattern: I’m doing something (and not in a “doing” way, just some feeling of activity), then this activity somehow starts to speed up until it rushes at an unimaginable speed, and then suddenly comes the realization that this thing is endless and lasts forever, so the speed subsides leaving a lingering feeling of dread and despair.
I remember trying to describe it using this metaphor as a kid (again, nothing here is literal): I’m walking somewhere, first normally, and then speeding up, with walking morphing into an exhaustive and panicked run, until the realization that the destination is only getting further the faster you run hits, so I go back to walking, but feeling crushed at this realization.
I also remember describing or thinking about these dreams in other ways, like flipping through pages of some important book ever faster, until it dawns on me that the book is in fact infinite, for example. Or exerting more and more effort to think of some specific word until I realize that it doesn’t exist. Stuff like that.
Idk. It was such a weird thing.
A man with a crescent moon face running up the stairs to my room and attempting to drag me downstairs.
The mcdonalds late night man was fucking terrifying
So there used to be this cartoon called Silverhawks, which was about these dudes who are partially made of metal and they can fly.
First dream I can remember, I was at the doctor and they wanted to give me a shot in my leg. I was really afraid of needles at the time, but suddenly I became a Silverhawk. The nurse was trying to stick the needle in my thigh, but my thigh was metal, so her plan was foiled.
That'll stop her for sure!
The house I grew up in had a big backyard and I remember one night when I was like 10 years old I had a nightmare that a shadow person ran all the way from the back of the property to my house then presumably into it in less than 10 seconds.
Was the scariest thing Ive ever witnessed because when I woke up it was still night and I believed it actually happened and someone/something got inside.
I have no idea why I remember this. Its literally my second memory in life and it happened before I was put in foster home, so I can't have been older than 5 most likely 4.
I was in my grandmother's living room. And on a table I see a candle. But instead of a flame on top theres a tiny wax figure of some fruit. Curious I decide to touch it, but when I do it falls over, and the living room starts burning! And theres where I woke up, I think.
I got a feeling this was more than just a dream. Regret I wasn't able to confirm that before my biological grandmother and mother died. I had time but I never did ask.
I got a few other non-dream memories from back then too. Three of those I've confirmed later that was true. So I know its possible to form permanent memories at that age.
It's definitely possible. I have been able to accurately describe a few things from about age 3 or 4 onward.
Yeah, some of my most vivid and detailed memories are from when I was 4. It’s interesting to see that there’s such variance in when peoples brains seem to start recording memories
It is interesting! I know someone who can't remember anything until age 8. The brain must have been recording but she is unable to access it.
I had this dream for many months and possibly years on end and recurred sporadically for years after. I was on the inside of a semi-transparent moon like object looking out and everything was kind of blurry.
This dream was consistently across each dream state, I guess it was some kind of memory of being in the womb as it had always had that home kind of feeling. I had this dream from as early as I can remember up until around 6 or 7 years old.
A recurring nightmare I had when I was a kid, involving a T-Rex breaking through my grandparents’ kitchen window. Terrifying!
I’m 42. I’ve never remembered a dream in my life.
Darn, you're missing out on something awesome. Have you had sleep paralysis at least? Those are also cool. Scary but cool.
The first I can remember was I think when I was 4, and basically I got abducted by a UFO and it turned out that it was the Simpsons that had abducted me.
Needless to say this was a terrifying dream to 4 year old me
Im not sure about my first one but I had a re-occuring nightmare where home invaders came and I would run and I guess they where after me because they ran after. I would be alone or with different family members. I swear having eye crustys increased my chance of nightmares as a kid.
When i was probably 4 or 5 i had a reocurring nightmare i was walking down the street to my friend jeff's house and the sky suddenly turned stormy and red and giant house sized rabbits started chasing me.
I'm sure I had plenty prior to this, but it's the only one that I can remember vividly enough to write down. I remember I had taught myself to recognize when I was dreaming. I was probably about 9 years old, and it was in the early 90s before I had even heard of lucid dreaming, I couldn't take control of the dream, I was more interested in just waking myself up to get out of dreams. I remember that I had woken up from a dream in the middle of the night and looked down the hallway toward my parents room. It was dark but they had a nightlight in the hallway so I saw something moving and thought that I heard my mom coming toward my room but when I saw her she was a huge bug wearing a nightgown instead and then I woke up again.
I don't know which was first, but around 4 or 5 years old I had a bunch of dreams that I confused with reality. They were so vivid, even now when I'm back in that town I half expect to see these impossible things.
A towering rock garden in the park, a hair comb shaped like an ice block, a man in a beefeater costume who gave rides in his horse drawn cart, a singing black cat on the fence of that house on the corner,..
Fleeing naked along endless paths through mountains of jagged debris. A world torn apart. Feels like moving through molasses. Enough light to register, but not enough to see more than looming shadows. The air is hot and oppressive. It's hard to breathe. Sounds are muffled, no echoes. Safety lies at the centre of the maze but the path shifts and twists away like a living thing.
It was a recurring nightmare throughout my childhood. I still get anxious in really dim lighting, like when lights on a dimmer switch are down really low or candlelight in a dark room. I call it nightmare lighting.
I was very young, 4 or 5, and I was taking a nap in the afternoon. In my dream my mom told me she would only ever make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner for the rest of my life. I liked spaghetti and meatballs, but I didn't want to eat only that forever. My grandmother woke me up because I was crying in my sleep.
This is my earliest memory.
I dreamed a dog bit me and everything went dark and I died.
How do you know you died if everything was dark?
Its weird how one just know stuff in dreams despite having no evidence. Sometimes I might even realise it was false when I wake up, despite being completely sure its true while in the dreaming.
Yeah it was just that weird omnipotent dream knowledge.
But what intrigues me is you seem to be suggesting that I would need light to see if I was dead? But how can you see once you're dead?
But how can you know you're dead once you're dead then?
It's dead simple.
So when I was little my room was arranged in a way that if I was in bed, my head was opposite the door. I would sleep with the door open so lying on my side I was looking out onto the landing. Our stairs were just outside my door and they were open to the living room below, I found the light and the vague murmuring of the tv to be comforting I guess.
Until I started having this recurring dream. I'd be lying in bed, looking out at the dimly-lit landing as per. I'd hear the tv get turned off and my parents start to climb the stairs, also as per. But when they got to the top and came into view they wouldn't be my parents at all, they were....dun dun duuuuuun...big scary dragons! They'd see me looking and come into my room and stand menacingly over me, and then I'd wake up.
I started shutting my bedroom door after that.
For me, it was a reoccurring nightmare that was more of a feeling than some story or vision. It’s really hard to explain, but it always followed the same pattern: I’m doing something (and not in a “doing” way, just some feeling of activity), then this activity somehow starts to speed up until it rushes at an unimaginable speed, and then suddenly comes the realization that this thing is endless and lasts forever, so the speed subsides leaving a lingering feeling of dread and despair.
I remember trying to describe it using this metaphor as a kid (again, nothing here is literal): I’m walking somewhere, first normally, and then speeding up, with walking morphing into an exhaustive and panicked run, until the realization that the destination is only getting further the faster you run hits, so I go back to walking, but feeling crushed at this realization.
I also remember describing or thinking about these dreams in other ways, like flipping through pages of some important book ever faster, until it dawns on me that the book is in fact infinite, for example. Or exerting more and more effort to think of some specific word until I realize that it doesn’t exist. Stuff like that.
Idk. It was such a weird thing.
A man with a crescent moon face running up the stairs to my room and attempting to drag me downstairs.
The mcdonalds late night man was fucking terrifying
So there used to be this cartoon called Silverhawks, which was about these dudes who are partially made of metal and they can fly.
First dream I can remember, I was at the doctor and they wanted to give me a shot in my leg. I was really afraid of needles at the time, but suddenly I became a Silverhawk. The nurse was trying to stick the needle in my thigh, but my thigh was metal, so her plan was foiled.
That'll stop her for sure!
The house I grew up in had a big backyard and I remember one night when I was like 10 years old I had a nightmare that a shadow person ran all the way from the back of the property to my house then presumably into it in less than 10 seconds.
Was the scariest thing Ive ever witnessed because when I woke up it was still night and I believed it actually happened and someone/something got inside.
I have no idea why I remember this. Its literally my second memory in life and it happened before I was put in foster home, so I can't have been older than 5 most likely 4.
I was in my grandmother's living room. And on a table I see a candle. But instead of a flame on top theres a tiny wax figure of some fruit. Curious I decide to touch it, but when I do it falls over, and the living room starts burning! And theres where I woke up, I think.
I got a feeling this was more than just a dream. Regret I wasn't able to confirm that before my biological grandmother and mother died. I had time but I never did ask.
I got a few other non-dream memories from back then too. Three of those I've confirmed later that was true. So I know its possible to form permanent memories at that age.
It's definitely possible. I have been able to accurately describe a few things from about age 3 or 4 onward.
Yeah, some of my most vivid and detailed memories are from when I was 4. It’s interesting to see that there’s such variance in when peoples brains seem to start recording memories
It is interesting! I know someone who can't remember anything until age 8. The brain must have been recording but she is unable to access it.
I had this dream for many months and possibly years on end and recurred sporadically for years after. I was on the inside of a semi-transparent moon like object looking out and everything was kind of blurry.
This dream was consistently across each dream state, I guess it was some kind of memory of being in the womb as it had always had that home kind of feeling. I had this dream from as early as I can remember up until around 6 or 7 years old.
A recurring nightmare I had when I was a kid, involving a T-Rex breaking through my grandparents’ kitchen window. Terrifying!
I’m 42. I’ve never remembered a dream in my life.
Darn, you're missing out on something awesome. Have you had sleep paralysis at least? Those are also cool. Scary but cool.
The first I can remember was I think when I was 4, and basically I got abducted by a UFO and it turned out that it was the Simpsons that had abducted me.
Needless to say this was a terrifying dream to 4 year old me
Im not sure about my first one but I had a re-occuring nightmare where home invaders came and I would run and I guess they where after me because they ran after. I would be alone or with different family members. I swear having eye crustys increased my chance of nightmares as a kid.
When i was probably 4 or 5 i had a reocurring nightmare i was walking down the street to my friend jeff's house and the sky suddenly turned stormy and red and giant house sized rabbits started chasing me.
I'm sure I had plenty prior to this, but it's the only one that I can remember vividly enough to write down. I remember I had taught myself to recognize when I was dreaming. I was probably about 9 years old, and it was in the early 90s before I had even heard of lucid dreaming, I couldn't take control of the dream, I was more interested in just waking myself up to get out of dreams. I remember that I had woken up from a dream in the middle of the night and looked down the hallway toward my parents room. It was dark but they had a nightlight in the hallway so I saw something moving and thought that I heard my mom coming toward my room but when I saw her she was a huge bug wearing a nightgown instead and then I woke up again.
I don't know which was first, but around 4 or 5 years old I had a bunch of dreams that I confused with reality. They were so vivid, even now when I'm back in that town I half expect to see these impossible things.
A towering rock garden in the park, a hair comb shaped like an ice block, a man in a beefeater costume who gave rides in his horse drawn cart, a singing black cat on the fence of that house on the corner,..
Fleeing naked along endless paths through mountains of jagged debris. A world torn apart. Feels like moving through molasses. Enough light to register, but not enough to see more than looming shadows. The air is hot and oppressive. It's hard to breathe. Sounds are muffled, no echoes. Safety lies at the centre of the maze but the path shifts and twists away like a living thing.
It was a recurring nightmare throughout my childhood. I still get anxious in really dim lighting, like when lights on a dimmer switch are down really low or candlelight in a dark room. I call it nightmare lighting.