This was what I would say was a weird, disturbing dream but not the type of nightmare that generally wakes me in a panic. And it’s weird because I had this dream the night before I found my dad dead IRL, not knowing he was already lying dead on his kitchen floor so when I thought about it later after the funeral, it kind of gave me a Keanu Reeves “whoa” type of moment that I had such a strange dream after my dad had just died but before I knew about his death:
I was in a room with other people (RL people) and some chunky gray stuff kept appearing in my mouth…I kept spitting it out but my mouth would just fill right back up and I would have to keep spitting it out. It wasn’t like I was throwing up from my stomach, it just kept materializing directly in my mouth…my mouth was just FULL of this chunky gray stuff, soooooo gross! (It kind of reminded me of the scene in The Sixth Sense where the dead girl’s ghost has Pine Sol puke dribbling from her mouth but in the dream there was more.)
My estranged sister and brother-in-law were in the room and I was annoyed and just wanted them to go away so my boyfriend, T, could take care of me. At some point someone (T?) said “is that blood?” like there was blood in the pseudo-barf but I didn’t see it.
Before I awoke I begged to noone and everyone to please make it stop (I’m thinking as I’m typing this, how did I speak with all that chunky stuff in my mouth, but that’s a dream for you) and why was it happening and then almost as if it happened because I subconsciously triggered it (if you think about it in a dream, it happens, so say the dream experts), I started gagging like I was going to throw up but I didn’t actually throw up.
And very nearly after that happened I awoke, as if that waking up was the answer to my begging “make it stop”.
Analysis: I doubt I psychically knew my dad was dead in my dream even though it’s an interesting coincidence, so I’m guessing the reason I had this gross dream was maybe because it symbolized my daily feelings of helplessness and lack of control due to the many stresses in my life.
I have others to share that involve waking up in a panic (true “nightmares”), but I’ll share some of them another time.
While we’re in this nightmare topic, does anyone else notice that most of your nightmares are in your very first sleep cycle? Most of my nightmares seem to be within 30 minutes to an hour after falling asleep. The one I posted here was after about 30 minutes so no wonder it was so weird because early dreams usually are.