Everyone in the world has had a nightmare.
We all know just how unpleasant they can be – we wake up screaming, or bathed in sweat. It may take us some time to fully realise that the mad axe-man who just hacked his way into the bedroom was in fact not ‘real’ in the usual sense of the word. He was a dream. But the dream felt ultra-real: the fear is still there in our pounding heart, the flow of adrenaline through our body, the terrifying scenes in our head.
The problem is, in the vast majority of nightmares, we are not aware that we are dreaming, and so we let fear get the better of us. When we feel fear in the highly thought-responsive environment of the dream world, the dream responds by becoming more fearful. It’s a vicious circle.
Yet in many ways, despite their unpleasantness, nightmares are gifts. They are our unconscious making contact with us, telling us there’s something we may need to work on. They are also full of creative energy. In cases of past trauma resurfacing, nightmares offer us a key to healing.
Studies have shown that lucid dreaming can be helpful in resolving nightmares, and lucid dreaming has had success on programmes involving people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

When we shine the light of lucidity onto a nightmare, the possibility for positive transformation of the dream imagery is huge
When we become lucid in a recurring nightmare, we can free ourselves of some of the fear connected to the images because we know that this is a dream and that we will wake up safely in our beds. When fear is removed, we feel more able to change and transform the imagery. Sometimes a nightmare will spontaneously turn into something far less frightening as a simple response to the dreamer’s lucidity and reduced fear.
Lucidity brings us a sense of safety. Since we know that we no longer need to flee from the nightmare image, we can actively guide the nightmare to a positive conclusion. This habit of facing unpleasant situations head-on and reacting with fearlessness can improve not only our dream life but our waking life, as this example from a North Carolina dreamer shows:
I know that I can change a frightening situation in a lucid dream, so I don’t let myself get scared or panic. I never run away from things or persons in my dreams anymore. And the strange thing is that in waking life I don’t run away either, anymore. I face things head on and don’t drag situations out forever. My lucid dreams have changed the way I look at life.
– Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, LaBerge and Rheingold, p.221
How to transform nightmares through lucid dreaming
- When you become lucid, make a conscious effort to calm down and experience a lack of fear. Remind yourself this is a dream and you will wake up safely from this experience.
- Ask the scary dream figure what is wants – does it have a message for you? Can you become friends?
- Send love and light to the nightmare scene – this often results in instant transformation into something far nicer or even funny.
- Actively change the negative elements: if the nightmare is being on a tiny boat in a huge storm, will the sun to come out and the waves to calm. Statements such as ‘All is calm, all is well,’ usually work well, especially if combined with utter faith that this is indeed the case!
- Summon help – ask for a strong friend to come to your aid.
- If all else fails in the nightmare despite being lucid – wake yourself up by holding your breath or wriggling your physical toes. Then try dreamwork in the waking state to unwrap why you felt so powerless in this particular nightmare situation.
Dreamwork – or what I call Lucid Dreamplay – following the nightmare can be really helpful, especially if we consciously create a feeling of safety before we begin. In Lucid Writing, a waking version of lucid dreaming that I developed for my doctoral research, integrative resolutions to nightmares can be reached.

What will appear next? The dream reacts to fear by growing more fearful. If we stay calm, it tends to become calm and beautiful in response
I invited people from around the globe to share their nightmares and transformative dreamwork with me for a highly practical book, The Art of Transforming Nightmares. This book was the hardest I ever wrote, but it is already helping many people to resolve long-term nightmares, understand and transform anxiety dreams, work with scary states such as sleep paralysis, and transform their night of sleep from uneasiness into blissful dreaming. It’s also available as an audio book on Amazon.
Nightmares can teach us a lot about ourselves, how we live our lives, what we need to change and how to transform our fear and move forward into a free and joyful life. Nightmares have huge creative energy and when we work with them, we harness this energy and feel the difference in every area of our life. That’s got to be a good thing, right? The video below shares how nightmares can be healing gifts and how the Nightmare Quiz in The Art of Transforming Nightmares can help you fast-track to the practices you need most in order to change your dreamlife for the better.
For blissful sleep meditations created by me especially to take you directly into a beautiful lucid dream, see these video and audio courses.
lucid dreams are not for everyone…I have wanted/tried to get them and still do, so here goes. I have nightmares, I have normal dreams, too. And Im still looking. Again, some things work for some, but I want to see what works for me. Any ideas? Let me know…
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.
Hello, Clare – I just saw your post on the IASD requesting nightmarish dreams, and I would love to participate. The problem is what to choose – lol!
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!!
Wonderful Lidia, thanks for getting in touch, I will email you shortly!
Lucid wishes,
Clare
Hello, my name is Clevester and I have been doing my own research into lucid dreaming and when I first learn of it, I started having lucid dream without even doing a lot of the techniques. I did remind myself I wanted to lucid. I had this really vivid dream of flying and looking down at the building below me. The coolness of the wind was so real. My interest came about when I find a artical on the subject I was having traumatic nightmares after my dad die. The dreams were so real and vivid. I knew they were dream upon awakening but while they were happening not so much.
When I was a child I had lots of dreams I knew were dreams but I didn’t realize I could control my dreams. I could create this space where I could become and observer. From outside the dream. I have gone through periods where I didn’t remember my dreams. I started writing a dream journal three months ago and I am having vivid dreams sometimes to many to write down and other days just impression I can barely remember much. But mostly my journal is half full.
My question concerns a dream I had that was very unusual. I saw family member but I also saw weird creatures and a very tall clown. I told one of the creatures I am lucid dreaming. It was so real and it was in a dark room and it was night. Anyway, I just was more interested in exploring the house going from room to room. Someone was cooking and it smelled good with spices and stuff. I remember expecting to eat but it never got done. I closed my eyes to wake up from it. I have so much I could say but I Don’t want to get to long. I found a lot of interesting topics on your site.
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
Hola!!! dra. Clare, gracias por su tiempo y su respuesta a mi consulta,Mi hijo de 14 anos tiene sueños o pesadilla de muerte, y sangrientos, hace poco estaba en el baño cepillándose los dientes y de pronto empezó a sangrarle las encias y la boca , desde el techo empezó a caerle un chorro de sangre mojándolo completamente, siente Tanto miedo voltea y se despierta. Cómo se aborda los sueños lúcidos en adolescentes , me puede dar algunos tips? Gracias!!!
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