Everyone, or at least the vast majority, has had nightmares, dreams with terrifying content. They cause anxiety and fear. It’s normal to wake up suddenly and feel your heart in your hand. The feeling of fear persists even after awakening. Feelings of confusion and sadness may also arise.
There are many causes of a nightmare. They occur by ingesting certain substances, tiredness, feeding problems or emotional difficulties, anyway this means that there is no good sleep hygiene.
“Who said dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as here and now?- John Lennon-
The situation is complicated when the nightmare becomes recurring, sometimes the same dream appears several times, as if it were printed, marked, other times the context changes, but the pattern remains fundamentally the same, it is in these cases that it is important to pay attention to what is happening.
Casual nightmares are those dreams of anxiety that appear sporadically, it is acceptable to have a nightmare every three months, it is within the range that can be considered ‘normal’, in these cases each nightmare has a different context than the previous ones.
Causes of these types of nightmares may include
To control this type of nightmares it is enough to eliminate the factor that causes them, it is important to do so, otherwise they can affect rest, it is best to eat early and avoid drinking alcohol or other substances at least two hours before bedtime.
Recurring nightmares, on the other hand, occur when the person is unable to recognize a conflict they have in real life, this can be a symptom of post-traumatic stress or an expression of difficulty accepting traits of their own or certain situations. the unconscious, has the possibility of emerging only through dreams of anguish.
There are recurring nightmares whose content is very common, represent typical human conflicts, although only each individual can specify their exact meaning, the most common contents and their fundamental meaning are:
While recurring nightmares are unpleasant and sometimes very frightening, in fact they should be considered a positive and valuable element, it is a way that has the unconscious to send a message about a topic that has been ignored and needs to be examined.
Ideally, the conflict with ourselves, which appears during the recurring nightmare, finds a way to solve it, it is normal that if this happens, the dream is presented with a similar content, but with a positive result, this indicates that the anguish has been lifted and that terrible dreams are no longer necessary.
Images courtesy of Douglas Girard.