by L.C.

Created on: February 13, 2010

Having a nightmare can be a very disturbing, frightening and upsetting experience. Just the other day, I dreamt there was a skeleton crawling towards me, who wrapped his fingers around me and started strangling me to death. I woke up with a start, and I realized my sheets were tangled around my neck and pressing down on my windpipe. This isn’t a mere coincidence; the body often uses dreams to quickly awaken the dreamer when there is a problem that needs to be dealt with immediately.

Many people have nightmares because they are sleeping in an awkward position. Sleeping sitting up with one’s head bent at an awkward angle, for example, can cause nightmares. So can sleeping when you are lying on your stomach and you have difficulty breathing because your nose is partially smothered by the pillow. Some people have dreams spiders or ants are crawling up their legs; this could be because their legs are cold. I once had a dream my arm was twisted and broken, and when I woke up I found my cat was sitting on the same arm and it had fallen asleep.

Sometimes our nightmares can also signal to us physical ailments we might have. I once read a very interesting post on a dream interpretation forum where a man said he had a dream of cooking a hamburger outside while wild animals surrounded him. When someone suggested he was allergic to meat, he wasn’t convinced, but a trip to the doctor’s confirmed that this allergy was what had been causing him to be ill for so many years. A few months ago I dreamt there were fire ants crawling down my throat, and the next morning I found out I had acid reflux.

When people wish to interpret their dreams, they usually see this from a psychological perspective, where the goal is to find the meaning of symbols in their dreams to understand messages being given from their subconscious. However, before doing such an interpretation, I would suggest considering a physical cause behind the nightmare. If you have a nightmare of losing your teeth, perhaps you grind your teeth at night, a condition called bruxism, which was the case with me. If you dream of being plunged into an ice-cold lake perhaps you are cold at night and need to wear warmer pyjamas or turn up the heat in your house. Many nightmares have a link with conditions suffered by the body, and by curing these problems the nightmares disappear as a result.

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