Do You Know What The Most Common Nightmares Mean?
Nightmares. Night storms where we immerse ourselves some nights, bathing in cold waters that take our breath away and make us suffer from the waves. The most curious thing about these dream dimensions is that they tend to respond to a pattern that we all share equally. Same images, same symbols, same situations. Gustav Jung would speak, for example, of those cultural archetypes hidden in our dreams. Those who come to configure a kind of collective unconscious.
Be that as it may, those dream images that root our nightmares tend to share the same patterns on which very simple realities are enclosed: personal fears, anxieties, worries, fears … There are a series of very frequent nightmares that we then go on to reflect on you, but from our space we invite you to describe those that are not present here. In this way between one and the other we can see new parallels to reach a better understanding. Because as you already know, the world of dreams is a field of study full of corners yet to be explored …
1. DREAMING THAT WE FALL INTO EMPTY
Going down a path and suddenly, noticing that the ground disappears under our feet. Falling down a hole, a ravine, a cliff … climbing a ladder that disappears step by step. Well, it’s a really common thing. Usually these dreams appear in the first moments in which we fall asleep. A sensation that ends up waking us up suddenly and with altered breathing . Experts tell us that this happens in the first moments of rest due to the following cause: stress. Sometimes we go to bed very upset, full of worry.
The brain is very active, full of adrenaline. However the body is relaxed. This mind-body decompensation makes our brain, still very active, provoke this series of dreams in which we end up waking up due to said decompensation. Tip? Try to relax and put your worries aside before going to sleep.
2. DREAMING THAT WE ARE BETRAYED BY OUR PARTNER
Something really frequent. In our dreams we see our partner betraying us, and sometimes even in a very blatant way. It’s just fear. Fear of losing what we love the most, fear of being hurt in what could cause us the most pain. It is something habitual and repetitive. Don’t give it too much importance. Suffering during the nightmare will be high, but when you wake up, don’t obsess over it.
3. SEE A DECEASED RELATIVE
It doesn’t matter how long it has been since that person left our side. There will always be a time when we dream of them. Sometimes they usually appear when we are going through a difficult life moment and with doubts. That figure would be a way of finding support, like someone who, although without saying a word, offers us advice. On other occasions, those lost relatives or friends arise in our dreams or nightmares because we miss them, because there is something pending with them that we would like to talk about or solve. Sometimes the losses are so abrupt that there are many gaps to fill. And our brain knows it …
4. DREAMING THAT WE ARE PERSECUTED OR ATTACKED
Going down an alley and feeling that someone is following us, someone who wants to hurt us. We start to run and that shadow, that person tries to catch us again. If this happens to you very often, analyze what is happening in your life. Are you feeling bad at work? Some pressure at home maybe? Is someone coercing or criticizing you? Something close to us, whether on a professional or personal level, puts pressure or a threat on our lives that worries us. It is a real fear.
5. DREAMING THAT WE HAVE AN ACCIDENT
The most common are traffic accidents. A curious explanation that the experts give us is the following: it is a very frequent dream, and the people who experience it usually agree on the same vital aspect. They are at a time when they are making great efforts to achieve something. Either on a personal or work level. They have high hopes, but there is also some fear … the accident would represent that fear of suddenly losing everything. An effort that comes to nothing by chance or tragedy. It is the fear of not getting something or, simply, of realizing that such investment is not of much use.
6. DREAMING THAT WE HAVE LOST TEETH OR THAT WE ARE GOING NAKED
Unsafety. The common nightmare of noticing how suddenly, our teeth fall out is something that occurs very frequently during adolescence and youth. It is a lack of security, it is going through a moment in our lives when we do not see ourselves with enough poise to face certain things. When it comes to leaving the house and seeing each other naked, it is something really common. But why have I forgotten to dress? We say to ourselves in the middle of the nightmare amazed by our nakedness, at the same time that we are the prey of multiple glances.
What is behind this image is the fear of disappointing, of being exposed in some way. There is some dimension in ourselves that is fragile, and we fear to expose or others to realize that weakness. Are you perhaps afraid that you do not have enough authority to impose yourself at work? Are you afraid of not being able to face something in your relationship? Think about it for a moment.
Most of our nightmares, the most common, have many fears, anxieties and worries behind them. We must be archaeologists of their symbols – and of ourselves – in order to understand them. So now also tell us what your most recurring nightmares are …
Image courtesy Carlos Loscar
