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Being chased, falling into an abyss, looking into a mirror and seeing that our appearance has been altered; balancing on a high wire with no safety net, unable to get out of a building or sinking into quicksand are classic nightmare story lines. We may awaken shouting, our heart beating fast and sobbing with terror shortly relieved to discover it was only a nightmare.
Nightmares mean that our deeper levels of being, psychologically and possibly physically, are keen to be acknowledged by our conscious/ego Self. Likely, we’ve been gently, and incrementally nudged that something is not going well, and we’ve been stubbornly ignoring the signs. Our dream director has taken it upon herself to create a stark scenario replete with setting, characters and action that will jolt us into making a change. At this stage in the nudge, you cannot ignore the hail but beware, you may be tempted to discount or minimize it.
A nightmare’s symbolism is as individual as we are, however, there are several common reasons for having nightmares. The most obvious one is trauma. We may not be permitting ourselves to ponder the trauma because the effects are still too raw. Our consciousness must integrate and file these experiences into our psychic makeup: Our psyche must give the trauma context and meaning. We must begin the journey of reaching a place of peace and acceptance and the nightmare may represent the first step.
Something has Breached Our Psychic Defenses
There are other common reasons for nightmares; fear of failure, a health alert, or feeling victimized. Being bullied triggers more than its share of nightmares in a victim of any age. Being faced with a difficult choice, behaving in a manner unfamiliar to our self-concept; abandonment, loneliness, lack of safety or medications can all set off a nightmare.
Military psychiatrists observed that when warriors on the front lines began dreaming of the horrors of war, they needed to be removed from the front lines. The horror witnessed had breached a psychic barrier and a mental illness was likely to ensue.
A client described a dream series of nightmares whereby she discovered many of her friends and family were vampires. In the nightmare she was terrified that they would discover she was human and would start feeding on her. She wasn’t a fan of the horror genre, so she couldn’t imagine why she kept having these theme-based nightmares. It wasn’t until I asked, “Who in your waking life is threatening to suck the life out of you?”, that she appreciated the genius of her dream director!
Nightmares May Suggest Encroaching Mental Illness
A nightmare may be highlighting a growing neurosis which means you are fearing something not founded. A phobia is an example of this. People who describe themselves as worry warts tend to be plagued more frequently with nightmares. Regardless, a nightmare in this case still demands attention. A growing phobia can be crippling. It may prevent us from living a free and healthy life. If a nightmare is alerting us to a growing neurosis, we need to have it examined and healed before it wreaks any further damage to our psyche.
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