Dreamscapes - Nightmares

Nightmares, the darkest manifestations that our psyches have to offer, seem to provide a kind of perfect storm for the experience of fear, even terror. Common themes include being chased or attacked, drowning and falling. Some nightmares tend toward the apocalyptic, featuring natural disasters, warfare or fire. They have been fodder for literature, paintings and film.

One in two adults suffers from an occasional nightmare. There seems to be some debate about whether nightmares have any value for the dreamer, as far as addressing some problem in waking life. Common causes for nightmares include anxiety, trauma or some sudden change, like the death of the loved one.

But there are other causes that might lead us to take a more reductionist view of nightmares. Some medications actually cause nightmares as a side effect; withdrawal from some substances (such as alcohol) can also trigger difficult dreams. And sleep disorders and sleep deprivation can make nightmares more frequent.

So where does this leave us? Perhaps at a point where we come up against the limits of the help we can receive from the unconscious mind. One of the tricks to introspection is knowing when to come up for air. If nightmares persist, despite an effort to understand them, determine their meaning and incorporate that meaning into daily life, it may be time to see a doctor for an evaluation.

Which is not to say that their imagery can't be useful for creative endeavors. It's just about getting a decent night's sleep on a regular basis.

For myself, I will sometimes have dreams from which I wake up frightened, but they don't generally rise to the level of a nightmare. The one dream I had like that was a long time ago. I finally got the interpretation, about 20 years later. The complexity of the situation prevents me from getting into it here. Was it worth the wait? Well, it was an explanation for an event I would not have otherwise understood. That's about it, though. I've gotten a lot more information from my regular dreams, so that's where I tend to focus. It sounds strange to say, given that we're talking about dream interpretation, but it's really about applying a little common sense.