What was the earliest childhood nightmare you ever remember having?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Just continuing on my fascination with dreams.....


What is the earliest nighmare you ever remember having as a kid? One that scared the beejesus out of you as a kid, and really stuck with you?

For me, I remember having this one dream where I was sitting in the kitchen of my house with my family, and hearing strange sounds. I looked outside the window from my kitchen and I remember seeing this yellow devil creature running up and down my driveway and getting very freaked out by it.

I think I actually remember having this dream more than once.

The reason why this dream bothered me so much was because it was so vivid. I was probably 4 or 5 at the time I had it, and I just remember how the kitchen and driveway looked exactly like it did in real life. No dreamlike distortions whatsoever.

It was so vivid that for a while I had a compulsion: shortly after I had the dream, my family bought their first microwave oven. The microwave oven wasn't in the dream, so I would always check to see that the microwave oven was there to ensure I wasn't stuck in the dream. In retrospect, it was a lot like the "totem" idea from the movie Inception.

[RedCloud]

1. Some woman with brown eyes and blond hair sponge bathing me.

It was my aunt and I was zero years old at the time.

[Still Blue in PDX]

2. We were in the driveway next to the back door and my brother told me our dad was dead.

My brother looked about 14, and I think it was after our dog got hit by a car and died, so I would have been 3.

I remember very little from my childhood, but I remember that dream like it was this morning.

[Amaril]

3. I had a recurring one about Dracula

He was in our house -- I could hear him moving from room to room -- he made a sound like sandpaper rasping against hollow metal -- and I kept changing my hiding spots, keeping one step ahead of him, until finally I was hiding in the basement inside an old console TV set that had the guts removed so it was just a shell & a panel on the back I could pull closed (we had no such TV in our basement & had never had a console TV, so I'm not sure where that came from). I heard him walk up to the TV and turn the power knob & once he did, he could see me inside. Then he picked up the TV & shook me out of it -- I tried holding on to it, but there were pointy things -- like nail heads -- sticking out of the wood & cutting into my finger tips, and I finally couldn't hold on any longer & fell to the floor. He picked me up & carried me to the backyard where he had a huge -- almost as tall as our two story house -- horse-drawn hearse waiting -- the horses and hearse were jet black and I remember the horses being so scary & skeletal looking - like a piece of black leather stretched across nothing but bones. He threw me into the seat up front & once I was there I was frozen in place. I kept trying to scream, but no sound would come out. As he began to drive away, I would wake up.

I was probably 4 or 5 the first time I had that dream, and I had it several more times -- always exactly the same down to the tiniest detail -- over the years - last time I was probably 10 or so.

[MiddleFingerMom]

4. I was preschool age and we lived in a two-story house on a hillside. The garage was in the basement

.
.
.
... relative to the front yard, but opened up flat in the backyard.
.
.
.
In the nightmare, MiddleFingerMomSis (probably in highschool then) brought home a ferocious
long-necked dinosaur and chained it to 7 Volkswagen Beetles on the hillside street beside our
house (a very specific detail). The dinosaur was breaking loose and our whole very small town
fled in terror (including my family), forgetting about me and leaving me behind in the house.
.
I hid in the garage and the dinosaur sniffed me out. I woke up screaming just as I watched the
dinosaur's head smash through one of the garage door windows.
.
I had a pretty happy childhood and didn't feel neglected or ignored, but this was a dream that
recurred several times.
.
.
.

[Paulie]

5. Being chased by the Luga men from the show SpectreMan or Space Giants

And falling off a building I dreamt I climbed up. Woke up on the floor out of the top bunk. Probably why I remember it 35+ years later.

[Myrina]

6. No idea how old I was, but

I recall my oldest brother holding me upside down and having me "walk" on the ceiling. He moved away from home when I was 4, so it had to be before that.

I also recall being in a crib, complaining for a drink of water and my closest brother (who is still a dick 40+ years later) brought me a cup of warm water. I must have been 3, maybe?


on edit: oops, I misread. Didn't see the 'nightmare' portion of the OP - thought thread was for 'earliest memory'.

[RevStPatrick]

7. Not the earliest, but certainly the most vivid...

When I was 4, 5, 6 years old, I had lots of nightmares.
For the most part, they were your basic scary monster kind of dream.
Like the one about the yellowish devil in the neighbor's back yard.

There was one that came towards the end of the run of nightmares, that still freaks me out when I think about it, and I can still see when I close my eyes.

Eyes.
It was just my bedroom full of eyes.
I remember waking up and the room was full of eyes.
They were watching me.

"MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Mommy came into the room, knowing that it was another nightmare.
She turned on the light and said "it's OK" and calmed me down.
When I looked around the lit room, the eyes were still there!
"Mommy, can you see the eyes?"
Of course she couldn't, and she held me and laid down on my bed and tried to help me get back to sleep.
But I wasn't gonna be sleeping anytime soon, as the eyes were still watching me.

Mommy fell asleep on my bed, and I was wide awake staring back at all these eyes.
And then came the voices!
I don't remember particularly what they were saying, but it was along the lines of "He's a good boy. He'll be alright. We can be proud of him. He'll have a good life..."

I remember my sister asking my mother the next morning about me screaming, and she kind of chuckled and said "Patrick had another nightmare."

I know I had a few others after that, but they stopped pretty soon afterwards.

Flash forward about 25 years... And Patrick is tripping his brains out at a Grateful Dead concert.

(for the record... I always thought their music was totally lame. but the social aspect was enjoyable, the girls were pretty, you could buy good drugs in the parking lot, and if you were tripping your brains out and crying your eyes out because you suddenly remembered a dream you had when you were 6, nobody bothered you for it...)

In the very last row up at the top of the arena in Oakland, suddenly, I start seeing those very same eyes again. There were other things going on for me at that time, so I wasn't surprised by it. Something in my brain broke that night, and to this day, if I close my eyes *and think about it* they will come back.

I've thought about it many times since then (that concert was about 20 years ago). I have a theory. It's based on very little. A little bit of reading about more "primitive" cultures. Those eyes were my ancestors. They loved me and they knew me and they were not threatening. Mommy "ruined" everything by telling me it was OK and comforting me and she made the eyes go away. Mommies always do that. It's their job. But something tells me that in another time and place, I would have been introduced to those eyes, and they would have taught me things. They aren't scary now when I can see them, but my brain and my nervous system have gotten brittle now that I'm in my 50's, so we can't really communicate any more.

Or, there's some other explanation...

[OriginalGeek]

8. 2 recurring dreams

one was Godzilla. We moved around a lot when I was young - I never went to the same school 2 full years in a row until 7th and 8th grade - and we often picked up and went in the middle of school years instead of during the summer. So the Godzilla dream was consistent in that it always happened in whatever town I lived in. He was chasing and I was hiding and in abject terror but I never got caught. As I got older and was able to explore more of my towns on my own and was aware of larger and lager geographies, the dreams expanded too so I'd have more room to run and more places to hide.

The other was a giant pair of cat eyes staring at me in the night. All I could see was the eyes and occasionally the evil grin with sharp teeth...I was aware of the eyes whether I was inside or outside in the dream...sometimes the cat would shrink down to normal size and peer at me from closets and under furniture...freaked me the fuck out.

[Arctic Dave]

11. Mine was Godzilla also.

We had to hide from him to keep from being crushed by his feet.

The other was being sucked into quicksand by the Creature from the Black Lagoon.


Yeah, I watched a lot of scary movies a young kid because of my older siblings.

[pink-o]

9. Oh, man. Freud would've had a field day with mine!

I was about 3 and I was looking at my window when suddenly it got really dark. Then the curtains started billowing, even though there was no breeze. They took on an eerie light, and I became terrified. I tried to run out of the room, but I couldn't open the door. Then, against my will, I was caught in the curtains, and they started smothering me.

This dream went on with variations until I was about 16. When I left home 2 years later, I analyzed it myself: The window represented the outside world, the place where we are inevitably drawn, away from our cozy room and comfort zone. But the curtains were my parents, who wanted me to go out into the world, but also wanted to protect me. I was afraid I wouldn't have the strength to leave a comfy home, and ultimately Mom and Dad would smother my free spirit.

Luckily, it didn't happen. Always been fiercely independent--and it's still my worst fear that I might grow weak and need help. But at least I can understand it now, without an allegory!

[sakabatou]

10. I don't remember how old I was

but the earliest I remember was being eaten by a brass water pitcher we used to have on the mantle.

[HoneychildMooseMoss]

12. I think I was around 3 years old

I heard this awful thumping sound at night. I opened the curtain and on the other side of the window was some horrible blob-like thing. I was afraid to look out the window at night for years after that.

[uriel1972]

13. Back in the 70's in my area the show Space1999 was being shown

There was one episode where shapechangers had infiltrated the base. I found the whole idea of shapechangers terrifying, so right on queue that night I had a nightmare featuring them. Sigh, if only my later nightmares had been so harmless and innocent, but I digress.

[trof]

14. The refrigerator chased me around the kitchen.

Weird.

[rachel1]

15. When I was 6 or 7 I remember being shocked and disgusted to see ants crawling

all over some chocolate candies I forget to cover.

That's when I learned never to leave food exposed.

[progressoid]

16. Falling off a cliff.

Sometimes in a car. Sometimes just free falling.

[Thor_MN]

17. Tornadoes. But I grew next to Lake Superior, so it was kind of stupid.

[frogmarch]

18. flying, to get away from

my mean 4th grade teacher. What was especially traumatic about the dream (I had it often) was that I could barely get high enough to keep her from grabbing my feet.

[Throckmorton]

19. I had this dream for the first time when I was 4,

and still have versions of it three or four times a year almost 50 years later.

I am on the rocks at Two Lights State Park, on Cape Elizabeth ME. A group of old women are washing laundry in huge old soapstone tubs perched on the rocks, while I am hanging on to the drain pipes from these tubs for dear life, while a giant penguin tries to swallow me whole. It is all in black and white, and seen from a third person perspective.

[tavernier]

20. Three of 'em and all were recurring...

1. Waking up in a pitch blank room; I'd walk to the light switch and flick it and nothing would happen. Then I'd feel my way out to the hallway with my hands, try that switch and same thing. Of course I was dreaming.

2. A man standing behind my bedroom door. When I looked in his eyes, the eyeballs would begin to spin really fast and creepy.

3. An old castle tower ... I was trapped inside and scared shitless. Last year when I was in Ireland I went to Blarney castle and the tower was almost like the same one in my recurring dream. My heart was pounding so hard, I almost didn't make it to the top, I was shaking so hard. Once up there, leaning over backward to kiss the stone was a piece of cake compared to negotiating that narrow tower.

[nomorenomore08]

21. Being attacked by evil, talking cats and dogs who mocked me just before the kill.

I have no idea where that came from. But I've always had kind of a morbid imagination.

[benld74]

22. GO ahead and laugh, but mine were of ventriloquist dummies,

who always appeared from hidden locations whenever the adults in my dreams would leave. They would chase, grab, tackle me and I would wake up. My parents basement while growing up was dark and not too friendly. I can recall my dad putting coal in the furnace in the early winter mornings.
That basement probably didnt help matters in my mind I guess.

[uriel1972]

23. I won't laugh

Those things were damn creepy.

[RILib]

50. basement

We had a basement like that. It terrified me. I saw it years later and it was, like 4 feet deep

[undeterred]

24. A giant Easter Bunny was breaking in to my bedroom.

Go ahead, laugh.

[murielm99]

31. I will not laugh at that one!!!

My earliest nightmare concerned a large, brown bunny, probably eight to ten feet tall. He kept hopping around on his hind legs. He hopped around and around the trailer house we lived in at the time. I kept moving from window to window, watching him. My mother and I were alone in there, and we were trapped. Mom was hysterical.

I guess my dad was at work. I had to be three or four, because my little brother was not in the dream.

Big fucking Easter bunnies are indeed scary.

[undeterred]

44. We lived in a small ranch house

and that some bunny used to be outside my bedroom window, but all I could see was his ears. Just these huge ears outside the window in the middle of the night, terrifying. I had to go in and sleep with my parents, because he didn't bother them.

This is what the Easter Bunny did when it wasn't Easter.

[femmocrat]

25. Being chased by a bear.

And running to my house just in time to slam the door in its face. I was panting, even in my sleep.

Looking back, I think the bear was the Russians. We were afraid of them during the Cold War! LOL

[union_maid]

26. I remember this!

Even though it was almost 60 years ago. I was walking past my grandmother's room in our apartment. Not sure now whether she was in bed or not. The room was dark. I could just see a woman pointing a rifle at my grandmother's bed. Then, as I passed the room she turned, very stiff and slow, as though she was on a slow moving turntable, and pointed the gun at me. Then that thing happened where I tried to scream but couldn't make any sound. Still gives me the creeps when I think about it. I can still picture the woman, too. It wasn't anyone I recognized.

[Broken_Hero]

27. I dreamed

that an alien from the Star Trek series was in our basement. I cannot recall the aliens name, or what episode but the alien looked like a pile of cheeseburger hamburger helper. I think the episode had Kirk in a cave of sorts trying to figure out what was killing Federation men, and come to find out the alien was killing them because they made their base in the aliens home, and she was trying to protect her young from them.

Anyway, to my dream...I dreamed that I was going into the basement to do laundry, I turn on the light, and only a corner of the basement is dark, and all of a sudden I see that alien coming out me(blob like in motion), and I scream/wake up.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

35. The Horta!

I always remember having a hankering for lasagna every time I saw that episode!

[Broken_Hero]

37. Yep, thats it...

Now the monster has a name! I was around 3-4yrs old when I had the nightmare....

[kwassa]

28. War of the Worlds, the original film version

I went to see it at a matinee, my friend didn't show, and I saw it all by myself.

I had nightmares for weeks that these Martian space tentacles were creeping into my room and going to zap me and turn me into powder.

[applegrove]

29. I remember being scared of pumpkin man. He had a pumpkin head and a straw man's body.

I ran into my parents room and they consoled me. Only happened the one time. Don't remember other dreams.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. Hard to put into words, it was so weird

I remember having the same dream several times when I was three or four. I think I was running a high fever when I had it. In the dream it was like I was a disembodied spirit on a vast plane where there were thousands of other disembodied spirits geometrically aligned and I was trying to break through that plane to get back to the real world of my parents. When I thought I had reached the edge of the plane and could go under it (as though it were a gigantic sheet of paper), I was drawn right back to where I had started.

[struggle4progress]

32. I heard this noise in my dream, like a musical chord struck on a piano: terrifying!

I woke up immediately and had trouble going back to sleep

[AsahinaKimi]

33. I used to have

Re occurring nightmares of Tsunami, sometimes being in the water, and sometimes being on land. Standing on giant stones watching a horrific huge, massive wave come in, or treading water, while watching a building size ocean wave come to wards me. There was another where I was in car going to the ocean. There was no beach, just lots of huge red orange jagged boulders and a curvy road. As the car moved around each curve I could see the wave coming... one massive huge monstrous wave heading right at me.

I always loved the Ocean, but the nightmares of Tsunami coming always made me wake up screaming.. and then I decided to search out and face my fears.. I looked for video clips on youtube.. I had in my room the giant Japanese painting in poster form in my room,


As well as on cups and nearly anything I could find. If I had it around it would be like accepting it... When the disaster happened in Japan, the Earthquake and Tsunami... I had to make myself watch every video clip I could find on that Tsunami. I was amazed how it was nothing like my dreams.. nor like the Movies projected a giant curving wave.. ready to crash down, crush and sweep away everything.

I still fear them, as should anyone.. but they don't haunt my dreams any more..and for that I am most happy.

[Ron Obvious]

36. Hey, I've had that dream!

It's not my earliest nightmare, but when I was a teenager I had that dream frequently. A giant wave, maybe a mile high approaching the city from a distance. It was the absolute inevitability of complete destruction with no chance of escape, despite its apparent slow approach that made it a nightmare. I don't know what triggered it as we didn't even live particularly near the sea at the time.

Years later I saw Peter Weir's The Last Wave a somewhat obscure film, but a fascinating one.

[raccoon]

43. I used to have recurring dreams of great big waves. nt

[smackd]

45. i have this one, too!

only its not just waves or tsunamis...i describe it as 'big water'

giant waves, raging rivers splashing over a bridge i must cross, roads being washed out and stranding me, being trapped in the upper stories of a beach hotel b/c of a storm surge, being on a boat tossed around in a huge storm...and so on.

i have absolutely no fear of water, i love it in all its forms, but i have dreams like this several times a year.

ive self-diagnosed it as the water being life events i cant control amirite?

[fizzgig]

34. all i remember is that et was coming through the window to get me

i wasn't more than two or three

[cyberswede]

38. I remember one...

I must have been under 4 years old...

I came into our house, and nobody was home, so I climbed the stairs to the second floor to look for someone, and at the top of the stairs was a roaring lions head (like the one Bullwinkle pulls out of his hat). Scared me to death - but now it seems really funny.

[geardaddy]

39. I had a recurring dream when I was about 5.

I got separated from my mom at a department store and was trapped inside after it closed. At that time, the hosiery display legs came alive and chased me around the store.

[solara]

40. This was a recurring dream when I was about 6 or 7

The background was darkness, I was a candle and in a circle all around me (as the candle) were very large human hands trying to snatch me..grabbing at me but failing each time...sometimes I was a feather, but the dream was the same. For some reason it was terrifying and I think I dreamed it for several years.

It seems so mild now

Ohh.. and then there was the mean clown face in the window at the foot of my bed..so many people have seen him that I wonder if it was a dream at all....

( edited to add about the clown)

[LeftInTX]

41. Falling out of a moving car, but my mom caught me

I was about 1 yo. It's my 1st memory in my life. I remember seeing the concrete and my mom grabbing me.

Not a dream.

[Spike89]

42. Many variations, but always being left behind

Mostly just being on the side of the road and watching as my family drove off not even knowing I was left behind. I had one other nightmare theme when I was 4 or 5 that would freak me out well after waking: I'd done a bad thing (murder, bank robbery) and there was nothing I could do to make it right and "being bad" would forever be a part of me (Catholic boy guilt dread?)

[smackd]

46. this absolutely terrible b-flick horror movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079758/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

i only saw the preview, and it terrified me, lol

i remember laying in bed crying, my mom trying to convince me it wasnt real

[erinlough]

47. two dreams that came back again and again.

The first one was that I was in the barn alone and my family was in the house. As I left the barn I was surrounded by big dogs (or they may have been wolves, sometimes big black cats) who circled me and were trying to eat me. The second one was running from indians like in the westerns that were so popular in the 50's. They chased me and stabbed me in the back. I could feel the knife go into my back.

[CharlieVicker]

48. The earliest one I can remember was at age 8 or so. A couple of Amazons were fighting with swords

and shields, and one of the shields flew out of their hand and struck me in the neck, decapitating me.

(I read a lot of horror comics as a kid...)

[Kennah]

49. OK, you are going to HAVE to laugh at this, because I always do.

I must have been about 7 or 8, and I had some sort of nightmare because I woke up screaming. Honestly though, I don't have even a vague memory of the nightmare, but it must have been a doozie.

Anyway, so I am sitting up in my bed, screaming and crying about whatever, and then it all gets VERY funny.

I had shit myself, in a big way, and I do not recall ever having any sort of bedwetting or soiling problems as a kid. Got potty trained before I ever started Kindergarten, and I was good to go after that.

Well, this nightmare of mine was so bad, that to keep the monster or whatever at bay, I had smeared shit all over one wall of my bedroom. Both hands in something of a bizarre finger painting exercise to ward off something truly evil.

Any experts in the field know what sort of demons or monsters are kept at bay by shit smeared on bedroom walls?