Surviving nightmares, by Stephanie Orefice.

Before we go anywhere with this, I need to explain something to you.

I have a terrible, uncontrollable fear of deep ocean, specifically things sinking into it or resting at the bottom of it. Think Titanic. The thought of a giant boat sitting all the way down on the bottom of the ocean floor makes me want to vomit. Not sure why or where that came from, but it is one of the weirdest things in the world.

So this morning, I did that “I will go back to sleep for another 10 minutes” thing. Almost immediately I fell asleep and began having a dream where I was on a cruise ship. It appeared that I was alone, and started talking to this group of people.. a lady in a wheelchair and a guy. It was almost time for dinner so  me and that boy were walking back to change (not sure why). We were suddenly in a parking garage and he was surrounded by girls that were from MTV’s the Real World and they were wearing sequins stuff. So I went down these stairs, and suddenly I was standing at the edge of the boat. It was more like a ferry, less like a cruise, except it was almost completely immersed in water. Like it was sinking.

In my dream, I stood there grabbing the railing and staring.

And I remember saying, consciously “I refuse to dream about a boat sinking.” So I woke up. Not to my alarm, not to any noise or discomfort.. but because I was not about to dream about one of my biggest fears.

Lately that’s been happening. When I was in California I was having a nightmare where myself and some friends went on an adventure and opened a tomb and released a curse. One person was brutally murdered and in my dream I said “I don’t want to watch a bunch of brutal murders” and so from then on, we were just haunted.. still scary, but not bloody.

If you should find yourself, tonight, dreaming of something scary (demons, dragons, ghosts, stalkers, my cooking) try to consciously recognize what’s going on and tell y0urself that you don’t want to dream that anymore. I’m not sure how or when I started dictating what does and doesn’t happen in my dreams but I’d be curious to see if any of you can do it as well.