Hola Maria!
nightmares have a symbolic language, it’s good to work with them to understand the meaning and extract any message (see my book Dream Therapy) and also work with calming down fearful reactions. You could let your son know about lucid dreaming, adolescents are often gifted lucid dreamers, there is much information on this website on how to get lucid, and in Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming, sorry it took a while to respond to your post, I was in Portugal leading a lucid dreaming retreat.
If he links any fear/anxiety to asking himself if he is dreaming, this will prime him to become lucid next time he finds himself having a nightmare. Then he can send peace and love to the dream, or change it any way he likes.
Wishing your son wonderful dreams,
Clare

Hi Clevester,

thanks for reaching out and sharing your nightmare experiences. I’s great to be a natural lucid dreamer!

When you have dreams that you don’t understand, it makes sense to do some dreamwork to unwrap their meaning and any potential message they have for you. You could try mentally re-entering your dream and asking the clown or the family member, or the weird creatures, why they are there and if they have a message or a gift for you. Find out what’s cooking and see if you can get to taste the food this time around! Allow the imagery of the dream to develop in your mind’s eye without controlling it. This can lead to surprising insights and imaginal encounters. There are many other dreamwork techniques in my book Dream Therapy (US title is Mindful Dreaming).

I wish you many fascinating dreams!

Clare

Wonderful Lidia, thanks for getting in touch, I will email you shortly!
Lucid wishes,
Clare

I had many experiences of sleep paralysis and out of body episodes. While these began as terrifying, they turned into miraculous astral flights. I somehow don’t think these qualify as nightmares any more.

Recently, I did have a couple of dreams that I’d qualify as nightmares. Both seemed to give me a continuous story that I didn’t want to experiences. Here’s the second one:

HORRIBLE MAN
May 13, 2019

I am visiting a friend in her home. The house is quite nice and furnished in rather old furniture. It’s not vintage, but just plain old and worn out. There’s something familiar about both the house and my hostess, a vague blond woman who is dressed in a cotton housedress straight out of the 1950’s. I suddenly remember being here not too long ago; it was here I was slobbered on by her brutal husband.

Much to my surprise, I find that Richard is there too, with Jen. While we all long to jump into a group hug and talk to catch up, something about them is warning me not to even acknowledge them as my friends. I notice that they’re even acting coldly towards each other, as if they’ve just met. I begin to wonder why I’m here.

It’s evening, and much to my relief the man hasn’t come back yet. Our hostess is going out of her way to make us comfortable, serving us dinner and now coffee. I ask for only a glass of water (first instance of this since I gave up caffeine about a month ago). Before long, it’s time to go to our beds. Again, I am mildly surprised that R and J have been assigned different bedrooms. Once I’m in my own bedroom, I go through my two suitcases. One contains SCA garb, which I was requested to bring for some event, and the other one has my own supplies. The SCA equipment is puzzling me, because I’m not at all sure why this was requested. During the evening, I did ask the hostess about it, but her response was rather vague. She only emphasized that it was needed.

When I wake up the next morning, I go past a bedroom and see that during the night, R & J have been together. I breathe a sigh of relief that there is really nothing wrong with them, only the circumstances. At that moment I hear the loud booming and dictatorial voice of the husband. I flinch, J jumps out of bed and dashes to her assigned room, and R looks startled. Then I duck back into my own room as the man begins to walk up the stairs. It’s obvious he has heavy boots on and is not making any effort to be quiet.

I hate it, but am not surprised that he just barges into my room. He sneers and says that now he’s got me, and I won’t be escaping his clutches again. His breath is nauseatingly foul, as is his body odor. And as he comes towards me, his arms are outstretched and he’s drooling uncaringly. I grab a vase from the night table and break the top off, warding myself with the ragged edges. He laughs, but as he lunges at me, I strike out and cut his arm, thus escaping. By this time, R and J are both in the room as well as the hostess. I run to them, and we get out of the room. There’s safety in numbers, I think, and I don’t want him going after J. We head for the kitchen and I grab the sharpest knife there, and give J a heavy rolling pin. I tell her that hit him without any hesitation. R takes another knife for himself.

Throughout the dream, there are numerous attacks by this ruthless man and counter attacks by us. Finally, we go into each bedroom and pack our bags. I decide to leave the SCA garb behind, only taking my personal things. Somehow the man finds out that J and R slept together and goes into a blind, roaring rage. I feel the he and R had some business to take care of, but that, of course, is no longer taking place. Finally, we fight our way outside and run to the next street where the bus in now loading. I bring up the rear and actually get the satisfaction of making the man bleed along his arms and thighs. This slows him down long enough for us to finally get on the bus.

The doors of the bus slam shut in his face…
*****
This dream is a breakthrough – I am fighting, and recognize this fact, with my Shadow self! That’s the
‘horrible man’ within me. All the trauma I’ve endured as a child, as a young married woman and mother. This is as much ‘me’ as is this 75 year old woman! I also recognize myself as the Warrior Archetype.

Please feel free to contact me if you’re interested in my sleep paralysis and out-of-body dreams, or, for that matter, any other kinds of dreams. I’m sure I have a record of them somewhere in my vast dream journal. Thanks!!

Thanks David. Yes, there’s a lot to be said on nightmares, lucidity, and non-lucid dreams, for sure! If you’re interested, you might check out Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Dreaming for practical exercises for engaging with nightmares for insight, healing, creativity and self-fulfillment.