Verbal magic is still used in contemporary Estonia to ward off nightmare attacks, especially by women sharing personal experience narratives. Although long, elaborate charms have become rare, modern verbal magic against nightmares is more diverse than in older tradition. New international trends have influenced contemporary practice, but key elements from older folklore persist, often combined with protective objects and rituals from both traditional and new sources.
People who share nightmare experiences on Internet forums are not typically active carriers of a consistent nightmare tradition, yet their discussions creatively combine elements from older Estonian folklore, New Age literature, horror movies, and medical explanations. Forum participants are connected by similar experiences and emotions, and their communication processes—including disputes about defining experiences and protective measures—resemble those in classical lore communities. Unlike older archival texts where narrators firmly identified the cause of their supernatural experience, present-day forum posts show hesitation in defining the experience and its causes. Contemporary nightmares are almost exclusively depicted as anthropomorphic, while older lore featured animal shapes. Forum discussions also include parallel scientific and medical discourses, though the main emphasis remains on magical and supernatural explanations.