The phrase "actual nightmare" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a situation or experience that is genuinely distressing or troubling, often in a figurative sense.
Example: "The traffic jam on my way to the interview was an actual nightmare, causing me to arrive late and flustered."
Alternatives: "real nightmare" or "true nightmare".
A scalp-prickling, skin-crawling, politico-psychological nightmare, of which an actual nightmare is one of the choicest moments.
But it has none of the strangeness of an actual nightmare and, like so many current horror films, it opts for sudden loud noises on the soundtrack in lieu of legitimate spookiness.
The stark surreal images evoke a mixture of terror and absurdity that comes as close to the experience of an actual nightmare as anything I've seen on the screen.
As an employee, this can make an already-awful job an actual nightmare.
@MillyAbraHookingjoelgolby @sophwilkinson / @MrDavidWhelan.
Firefighters finally got the riders out at 3 AM and sent them home, where they presumably changed their soiled pants or whatever, crawled into bed, and hoped against hope that they wouldn't have to relive the whole nightmare in an actual nightmare.
It's many people's nightmare – like, actual literal nightmare.
Are you, say, a liberal feminist Brooklynite who would never have sex with a Republican, considers dating someone in Queens a long-distance relationship and has actual nightmares about waking up in a suburban house with a Range Rover in the driveway?
Ignoring health and safety issues, this is the stuff of actual nightmares.
For years I had actual nightmares that I had showed up naked at board meetings and school functions and, trust me, it wasn't sexy.
If you think that sounds like a nightmare, you should know that eating before bed may increase the likelihood of you experiencing actual nightmares too.
