Nightmare frequency

Post Reply New Topic

Diagnosed Aspie at 60. Have had vivid, full color, movie-like dreams all my life and much more frequent nightmares than my neurotypical relatives. Is this part of being autistic?

Not in my experience.Rarely have nightmares, nor even memorable dreams.

I have nightmares because of trauma, so I take anti-nightmare medication. I don't really sleep either, so that's a good way to avoid them even though I had chronic insomnia. I don't know if it's common in ASD because in my case they're trauma related. I can't even visualise things in my mind (in the daytime, and seldom in dreams), so that makes it harder for me to see scary things. Somehow my trauma manages to break through that and I can see everything if I do have a nightmare.

I've had many, very bizarre, and some even repeating dreams (lost word again) all my life... though I don't know if it's the same with NTs, as the only "discussion" I've ever had with another person was when a HS classmate, who I sat behind, told me once that she dreamed she killed me.

I avoided her like the plague after that. lol

I rarely ever had any nightmares.
And I recall my dreams quite often.


That's not autism.
That's trauma, related to fear and anxiety.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

I have very vivid.dreams. I only have nightmares.when I am ill.

Some of my dreams are certainly uncomfortable, but hardly ever terrifying.

In my 20s I did, including a recurring one. I was super stressed. My therapist taught me lucid dreaming which helped. I still have them now when severely stressed, but thankfully that's less. I am anxious All The Time, but it's not as frequent and severe as it used to be.

I have nightmares due to trauma, and even when I had nightmares as a kid I'm pretty sure it was still from the same traumatic stuff. I don't think ASD necessarily makes me have more or less of them, or at least I can't tell if it does. I could see it having an effect though, especially with autistic kids that can have pretty bad sleeping issues.

Anybody else keep misreading the title "Nightmare Frequency" as the OP is asking us about our, and/or, giving a statement of their least favorite radio/electromagnetic frequency? Or is it just me?

lol ^

Some Autistic folks are highly visual or have other senses that are heightened, so I imagine nightmares might be "stronger" in those ways.

I have very vivid dreams that are colourful and full of detail. I do have nightmares from time to time, but I sleep through them.

I haven't had a real nightmare that was scary and unsettling in a very long time. Maybe 30 years. I might have dreams that are unpleasant and I'm glad to find out they are dreams when I wake up, but even that is infrequent.

I mostly dream about buildings.