The word 'nightmare' is instilled in us from a very young age - usually the first time a bad dream causes us to scream out for a parent or guardian. But have you ever wondered what a 'mare' actually is?

I don’t wish that I’d finished university. I dropped out one semester early, for exactly the kind of media job that I’d hoped to work toward after graduating. So why have I had the same dream for years, where I’ve gone back to school for one last semester, moved away from my wife and into a dorm, and I’m already late for class? And how do I stop having that dream? Apparently I can’t.

In my recurring nightmare, I have done something awful, truly heinous. What that dreadful thing is is unclear, but what is certain is that I'm about to be caught for it -- so I'm running. And running, and running, and running and always just about to be caught. Now this has the standard nightmare emotional content of terror, but the dream throws in some shame, too, just for an extra f-you from my subconscious. I always wake up shaky and distraught.

Good times.

Nightmares plague your mind and ruin your sleep, but lucid dreaming can help -- if you can be brave.

I don't mind bad dreams. When you wake up, the dream fades away. What utterly terrifies me, though, is when my brain wakes up but my body cannot move. That's sleep paralysis, and it affects anywhere between seven and 40 per cent of us.