Asperger's and nightmares

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I hope I am posting in the right area. I am recently on a dream thing right now (go Asperger's!) so I am wondering, do people with Asperger's/ASD (adults not children) have more frequent nightmares than the average person? I tried finding studies on the Internet but nothing came up so far, just mainly stuff about children with Asperger's but nothing about correlation between dreams and adults with Asperger's.
BTW for some of you psychology-minded folks, what exactly *is* the difference between a plain-ol' bad dream and a nightmare?

Wow, I haven't been on these forums for such a long time and I have a difficult time sharing my Asperger interests out of embarrasment.

wow, i used to have a nightmarry everyday for years but not anymore, somethimes i get
them but not in one uninterupted line of nightmares every night probably lots to proces
back then

Well, when I was a little kid I always had a nightmare where I'd be carried into the garage where there'd be a man in a red shirt waiting at the other end. I'd wait and wait and then he suddenly ran over and scarily licked my face constantly.

I've been to a sleep clinic a few times with my insomnia issues, and although it was impossible to conclude at the time, I've been told that it *is* possible that I have abnormally long REM phase... I have no idea if it has anything to do with AS, nor have I made any research about it, but yes, I have frequently very strong, vivid nightmares.

they all carry the same theme, apart from the occasional "Incubus".

I always make sure not to eat at least 3 hrs before going to bed, but they still persist.

<shrug>

I watched a disturbing children's documentary about 18 years ago.

It was something about a little boy's therapy sessions.

The therapist said that the little boy was very "naughty" for not listening to her and behaving like he did. She advised him to behave better in the future. During the episode, the boy avoided eye contact with the therapist and was given a yellow ball of plasticine to fiddle with. He made a yellow man out of plasticine and remolded it constantly.

The therapist said that he should try and stop having nightmares and calm down and behave sensibly.

The whole thing was dramatised. Shots zoomed in on a caterpillar crawling across the eye of a teddy. It was by far the creepiest thing I've ever seen in my life. The boy was screaming in with terror the background.

I hope to god that it was all dramatised and not a real life story. That boy was being treated like a hopeless case and a broken toy by the therapist. She wanted him to stop being silly and behave "normally".

While I watched the programme, I felt very angry for some reason and I almost sank to the pit of despair. The controlling and unsympathetic attitude of the therapist creeped me out most of all. The very memory of that programme unnerves me to this day.

That therapist was even creepier. She treated the boy like he was a problem to be fixed, not a human being. I remember feeling a bit like that in the past trapped in the wrong kind of environment.

I may have remembered some of the details incorrectly so do please forgive me if I've made some errors.

but I am also curious as to what the difference is between a "bad dream" and a nightmare.

I am highly creative myself so I tend to get strange, vivid dreams. I do know that nightmares are defined as a distressing dream that often wakes up the sleeper but some of the ones I get, while I do feel strong, negative feelings don't often wake me or make me bolt up in bed.

Since alot of Aspies that I have run into usually are highly creative (most of them seem to be in the arts) in some form or other, I would imagine that their dreams would be different from an NT.

She tells him to stop having nightmares then she shows the boy a teddy bear with a caterpillar crawling on it. THAT'S GOING TO GIVE HIM NIGHTMARES!! !!

Geez, sounds like one of those ABA horror stories. *Makes note to Google ABA

from what I have heard in the sleep clinic, REM phase is supposedly there to manage your sensory inputs and sort out the meaningless from the meanigfull that you go through throughout the day... if that reasoning was true, then autistic people would have abnormally long REM phases... at least, thinking logically.

I have been told that I probably have an abnormally long REM phase... as I wrote before. still though, I haven't found any torough research about this...

I seldom dream at all anymore. That or I don't remember them.

Though I used to have vivid dreams and nightmares as a child. I could also recall them in detail. Strange.

All the time. I actualy enjoy them. Horror movies like Saw never appealed to me. The Grudge was like a bad remake of my childhood set in Japan (my siblings and I were always jumping out of courners and closets trying to scare eatch other) so maybe nightmares are how I get my horror movie fix. Nightmare or regular dream, they are always very dettailed and I tend to remember all of the details. Salvador Dali and serelistic pantings remind me of them.

I wouldn't say I have bad dreams anymore.. but not pleasant either.. mine are just downright weird. This was discussed previously but one thing I have experienced in the past is the hag encounter, you know, sleep paralysis.. scary stuff.

Well, that explains the Gir avatar.

- -

I used to have 'nightmares'. They came in two phases, childhood and adolescent.

The childhood ones were creepy and surreal - never outright scary. Their memory occasionally still disturbs me.

My adolescent ones weren't really nightmares. They were about subjects I should have felt put off by (stereotypically scary), but didn't. Likely a release valve. It was when I was at my least stable, psychologically. They dont trouble me at all. The world's reaction to my mind was making my mind sick. The nightmares were a coping mechanism, just like scratching an itch (which actually exacerbates it). I think of them no different.

My childhood nightmares... good lord*. Its probably good that I can not draw, as I would never want those ideas to reproduce and see the light of day.

* Looking to buy Taoist compatible exclamations, so I can stop piggy backing off of the Christians'.

childhood nightmares are the scarist and I can remember at 7-10 of them. Half of them are at least recurrent. Like I said I don't get the kinds that make me wake up in the middle of the night, heart beating and all, nevertheless they are nightmares or whatever.

Though, I haven't had the hook dreams in a while but now my nightmares' favorite theme is drowning or being sucked by the drain in my grandma's pool (which is permanently closed), caught in a whirlpool.

I've had those sleep paralysis episodes before and that is scary, seems like that since I started wearing a blindfold (I'm light sensitive and usually sleep during the day.) 4 years ago those episodes seem less.

I hate the falling dreams the most, I literally jump a good 2-3 inches of the mattress when I "hit the ground" in my dream.

I used to have nightmares when I was a child. Those were scary but very much like a real dream. I would wake up startled, usually.

I have also always had something probably much worse; maybe more like a night terror. That is, a dream in REM sleep (at least that is what I think is going on). These are fully vivid and in full polychromatic color and almost in three dimensions (like going to a 3D movie).

Several have been underwater scenes.

They usually end with something intense happening, loud white noise, tunnel vision, and or inability to breath (underwater ones). I often wake up started, but then I am overtaken with a sense of calm and peace. After a minute or so, hower, the intensity of the dream returns, and I think I experience dissassociation and/ or a panic attack for a few moments until it goes away. Except for being generally freaked out, I am then okay.

Like what anna said, I suspect this has some relationship to the REM cycle and too much information being processed or some such thing. I now do not go to bed if I feel I have unresolved "issues." One technique that I have used successfully is to reinact the day in my head and think over anything that has bothered me. That seems to prevent these "dreams."


Anyone else have that?

I have problems with slep altogether. I have difficulties with falling asleep and I often wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep anymore... It's quite nasty

But when I manage to sleep well - I mostly have no dreams at all... Am I weird or what? Is that normal to not have dreams?

Alot of people don't remember their dreams, in fact you would probably run into people who say that they don't dream. The truth is, you do dream it's just that you may be unable to recall it. Some people report dreaming in black and white only while others (like me) dream in technicolor.

Also those who do remember their dreams upon awakening will recall it either wholly or just in fragments.

Thus, I think I should start keeping a dream journal.