On Nightmares...

As promised, here is the journal entry I wrote on December 8, 2004 concerning my interpretation of Nightmares. This entry has not been changed, edited or added too as it is very late and my brain is too exhausted to attempt such tomfoolery. Note that this is an extension of the previous blog entry, why not.

I think I have decided what truly makes a nightmare. For in my humble opinion (which in itself will be arguable), it is not always the content or imagery of one's dreams that constitutes a nightmare. When it comes right down to it, all dreams are a little bit frightening.
The constant spatial disorientation.
The unrecognizable or even unknown imagery.
The displacement of friends and family through the unconscious mind's use of symbolism.
All very disconcerting.
It is often the intensity of one's perceived imagery that is regarded as nightmarish. Honestly though, we regularly sleep through most of this intense imagery without even realizing it. And if most dreams deal with fears or unresolved psychological issues through use of this intense imagery, then what am I trying to claim defines the nightmare?
I say it is not the dream at all, but it's conclusion. In other words, how and when one awakens.
I had a dream last night that was...intriguing.
The details and the imagery are unimportant in this instance, as they are not my focus. The dream itself was a very comfortable progression from something quite pleasant into something a shade darker...and significantly more uncomfortable.
I was fully aware, in as much as I could be conscious of it, that it was becoming more uncomfortable and that I did not wish to continue having it.
Yet, I did not awaken.
My mind either forced or allowed me to see the dream through to its awful conclusion, and it was only when I awoke that I realized I had been having a nightmare. When my eyes opened and I saw where I was, safe in my room and not in that horrible other place, I felt such a sense of relief.
It is that relief, strangely enough, that defines the nightmare. The sheer realization that you no longer have to exist in that terrible life (for it does feel like a lifetime despite its span of only a few seconds) gives one the point of comparison necessary to separate a dream from a nightmare.
Without that moment of realization, it's just another collection of intense imagery playing itself out in the unconscious mind.
It goes unrecognized and probably disregarded by the conscious mind.
So in some sense, as regards what I have said here, one must be awake to have a nightmare.

Back to the future (Jan. 23, 2005):
Huh. I wonder if that makes sense...