Work Through Several Possibilities

Thu., Aug. 22, 1996

Nancy Huseby Bloom

Dear Nancy: I’ve had this nightmare several times every summer since I was 7 years old. I wake up so scared I have to leave my bed and sleep in the living room. My family has moved several times and I’ve had different beds but I still have this same dream. I am really afraid of spiders and ants. I’m 12 years old now. Can you help me? - Serenity

I see ants crawling all over the floor of my bedroom. They are on my bed and all over me. I feel them walking on my skin and I wake up in terror.

Dear Serenity: When we talked on the telephone, you told me that you have allergies and your skin becomes irritated unless you sleep with very smooth sheets washed with a mild detergent.

Dream research has shown that certain dreams can be connected to physical problems or outer stimulation. For instance, a dream of being paralyzed may be related to blankets or sheets wrapped around the dreamer’s body restricting his movements. A hot, desert dream scene may be the result of having too many covers on. Your dream could be about the irritation of the sheets against your sensitive skin.

Dreams also speak to us in metaphors and puns. Are you letting little things “bug” you? Do you allow other people to crawl all over you? You may need to brush these irritations off or stand up for yourself more.

Your enormous fear of spiders and ants should be faced and dealt with or you may find these creatures in your dreams for a long time to come. We need to face our fears in order to resolve them.

Spending a little time in your back yard or garden, watching the efforts and skills of these fine insects, might help reduce your fear of them. A small ant farm could help you appreciate and familiarize yourself with their habits.

I hope I’ve given you some help, Serenity, so you can find the beautiful quality of your name in your sleep.

Tips for readers: A nightmare is a dream that leaves you with feelings of terror, overwhelming anxiety and helplessness. Nightmares usually offer no resolution within the dream so the dreamer wakes up in panic and distress.

Nightmares can be a simple exaggeration of the situations in our lives. Feelings of helplessness in a nightmare may be triggered by a situation we are experiencing in our waking lives that we feel powerless to change. Events such as divorce, death and sickness can all bring about intense nightmarish dreams. These nightmares show us that something is out of balance and needs to be addressed.

If the psyche cannot reach the conscious mind through the normal dream experience and the issues involved remain unresolved, our psyche will force us to wake up and pay attention by using terror and intense anxiety.

Nightmares can also be indicators of events to come. As in precognitive dreams, we can receive warnings of an upcoming crisis in our personal lives or even in the world at large.

Research has shown that dreams of war are more prevalent before any actual conflict takes place. These precognitive dreams can be very disturbing and raise questions regarding the purpose of the dream. Is the dream about my own personal “wars” or about world issues?

Sometimes we have no other choice but to wait for further developments and then experience the “Ah-ha” moment when we consciously know what the dream is really about.

xxxx

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