Analyzing Dreams and Uncovering the Subconscious Mind : Analyzing Dreams and Uncovering the Subconsc

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Definition of Nightmare Versus Bad Dream:

A nightmare is frequently defined as a long, frightening dream that AWAKENS the sleeper. The assumption underlying the use of the waking criterion in defining nightmares is that sleepers awaken from a nightmare because of the extreme intensity of the emotions experienced within it. If the magnitude of negative emotions in a dream is not great enough to awaken the sleeper, then the dream IS NOT sufficiently disturbing to be classified as a nightmare.

Evidence exists to support the idea that even the most unpleasant of dreams do not necessarily awaken the sleeper. Based on data from more recent studies, some researchers have suggested that disturbing dreams which awaken the sleeper should be called "nightmares" whereas disturbing dreams which do not awaken the sleeper should be called "bad dreams." Several reports have also shown that although fear is the most common emotion in disturbing dreams, these dreams can also contain a variety of other unpleasant emotions such as anger, sadness, and frustration. A nightmare is thus defined as a disturbing dream in which the unpleasant visual imagery and/or emotions awaken the sleeper. A bad dream is a disturbing dream which, though being unpleasant, does not cause the dreamer to wake up.

Nightmares vs. Sleep Terrors

Traditionally, the term "nightmare" has been used to refer to two distinct types of sleep phenomena, actual nightmares and what are known as sleep terrors. However, nightmares and night terrors can be differentiated both biologically and psychologically. For example, nightmares are characterized by the presence of vivid visual imagery (frequently situations in which the dreamer is in danger) and strong negative affect (e.g., intense fear, anxiety, or guilt). These dreams are usually remembered in detail, typically end with the subject's waking up (in a non-confused state), and occur largely in REM sleep during the second half of the night. By contrast, sleep terrors (sometimes called pavor nucturnus in children and incubus attack in adults) are marked by a sense of confusion upon awakening, the usual absence of recall of elaborate dream imagery, and the presence of intense autonomic activation. They typically occur in slow-wave sleep (stage 3-4 sleep) during the first hours of sleep, and amnesia for the entire episode is typical upon awakening in the morning.

 

[Grama-Herc]

Well, had a very, very strange dream last night. I was working at my old job---my doctors office. There were a lot of rude pushy people demanding to see doctor at the end of the day and they had no appointments. The people were very old and the family member who brought them simply left them there and drove off. I person actually burst into doctors office while he was with another patient. All of a sudden there is a loud noise, I open the door and doctor is in a corner and the patient is attacking him.

I start screaming and waving my arms and yelling" You leave my doctor alone" As I move closer to the attacker he runs out.

The next thing I remember is walking around the parking lot outside. It is dark and some of the family members have returned to pick up their family member. There is a man walking with me. He has his arm around me and he is leading me towards to woods. The next thing I recall is wlking with the doctor--his arm around me and we are headed back into the office and I am telling him the man "touched me.. He touched me! !

The dream is very disjointed nothing seems to fit together. Can you make any sense of it?

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi Grama Herc,
I think part of your trauma is in this dream. I noticed that some of my dreams seem unusual and I can dissect them but I seem to always find one or two symbols of the trauma in them.

I think being back at your old job means an old burden has come back to visit you. Most likely it’s stress?

The first part of the dream appears you feel overwhelmed and people (maybe the animals too?) are demanding a lot of your time without asking. Didn’t the kittens get abandoned just like the family members that dropped off the patients and then drove off? I see a correlation there. It seems you feel real sorry for these animals and want to attack the people who abandoned them, but instead your attacking yourself, and the patients represent the kittens in real life.

Walking in the parking lot while it is dark could represent a temporary mood. Maybe you were feeling a little depressed then over came it. The family members are coming back and picking up the patients so you feel that you are taking care of the issue that previously stressed you out.

The man leading you to the woods is your own mind leading you into a place of despair. However, you manage to change it around and now your walking with the doctor who is actually you, (you healed yourself of this temporary stress) Good Job!

I believe the part about “He touched me” has to do with your trauma and stress will bring on these feelings and they come out in the dream world.

I think your handling this well based on the dream.

 

[tude]

Hey Tammy, I thought the bad dream vs. nightmare was interesting. Lately, my differentiation has been whether or not I wake up feeling terrified. According to the definition you give, I'm still having nightmares. I think I'll stick to my criteria, because it gives me a sense of symptom improvement!

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi tude, what is your criteria or stance on the nightmare versus bad dream? I was looking into this when I had an unpleasant dream where a man was shooting at me and stole 3 babies. I didn't wake up and the dream didn't scare me that bad. My main concern was when I got panicky about saving the babies. I haven't figured out the dream so I sent it into one of my groups for the members to look at.

Tammy

 

[Awakening]

Well I've started having some strange dreams again, that are a little fuzzy.

Dream One.
A work colleague gives me a book that is in a box. He wants me to take particular care of it. There is a lot of packaging, plastic etc. But then the book itself doesn't have a cover, and the front page which doesn't have anything important in it has started to tear away. I decide to rip the page off because it half hanging off is annoying me. But then I hesitate. I see that in the packaging is like a construction set of putting the book together - binding it and also a hard cover. I decide to put it together, but wonder if this was so precious to my work colleague (who is male & very anal in real life) didn't bother to do it.

Dream Two
I'm in a group of friends and we stumble across a train crash and there are alot of police. We are allowed to freely go around and inspect, and it's awful, there are all these children in school uniforms pressed up hard against the glass windows of the train frozen in time, they have awful expressions on their faces - like frozen screams, confusion or just pain.

I cannot tell if they are dead or alive. I think they surely must be dead, but every now & again they move slightly. I think we need to get them out because they are jam packed & crushed in there.

Yet, apparently no one else can get them out because it turns out that an evil man has deliberately crashed the train and held everyone hostage.

Yet no one else is disturbed by this in fact they think it's fun & exciting. My friends, the police talk about how exciting it is. Some friends ask the kidnapper if they can go inside the carriage to look at the victims, and the kidnappers says sure go right ahead.

I'm saying 'are you all crazy, once you are in there he will not let you go, he will kidnap you too'

My friends say 'great! I'd love to be kidnapped how cool is that'

And go inside. But the kidnapper is not happy with me for saying what I've said, saying I'm ruining it for everyone, I try leaving the scene but seem unable to before waking up

Dream Three
I've had several dreams like this lately of the same nature. It involves travel either plane, train, tram or car where I have to be at one place by a certain time yet I'm not going to have the time to make it and wonder how I got myself in this situation.

Another one is where I have to be at Point A at say 10 oclock, but then I need to go back to Point B (usually home either current or family home) which is either hours drive away or hours flight away and then be back at Point A by 12 oclock. I can never figure out why I've scheduled my day like this. Why didn't I make the two appointments at Point A together? Why do I even need to go back to Point B? I get really confused & overwhelmed in this dream.

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi Awakening, I'm glad you had a break from these dreams for awhile. Hopefully they will end soon.

Dream One:
If this were my dream I see the book as my life history. The cover of it is gone (without memory or identity) The front page doesn’t seem important to me and is hanging off so this indicates that I want to find the important information in my life in order to learn what went on in my past.

I hesitate tearing this page off because I can restore myself. I have found the tools to do this and now I have a hard cover, which would be the beginning of my identity and I see my strength. The colleague is an aspect of my personality and I find it important to put my life in order and mend it.

Dream Two:
If this were my dream the children represent my inner child. The school uniforms could indicate that I’m learning to conform to certain behaviors set up by my parents or any authority figures. The children’s faces pressed up against the glass allows me to see the pain I was in as a child. This pain has been frozen in time but now that I see it, I can start to deal with it.

The evil man is someone I know who has deliberately hurt me. He took my journey and crashed it and as a result I’m a hostage in my own mind.

No one else is disturbed by this could indicate that’s how I perceive other people to feel about my situation.

I perceive that my abuser would be upset that I’m trying to get well and keep myself from entering my past (train wreck) in order to find the truth so I can heal.

Dream 3:
If this were my dream I’m feeling disorganized and trapped by time constraints. I’m trying to figure out why I take on more than I can handle and this makes me feel overwhelmed.

Take care
Tammy

 

[tude]

Hey Tammy, I hope this answers your question sufficiently.

It's been a while since I have awoken from a dream terrified. (Actually, I think the last one was when I came out of triage and returned to regular duty, only to deal with three codes in as many weeks.) They have all woken me up and are hard to shake off. That's what I have considered a nightmare.

I have had plenty of bad dreams which wake me up as well but I am not terrified. Helplessness, harrowing sadness, panic, and fear color the bad dreams. Sometimes those feelings linger too. They all make me afraid to go to sleep sometimes. Also, I think it's why I cannot stay asleep at times- fear of dreaming.

Let us know what your group thinks of your dream. I too had a similar dream to yours.

Take care,
tude

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

OK I will let you know, My dream goes into the group on June 17th and I will get my responses by June 22nd then I will post the dream and the responses that I think are accurate here.

Right before I went to bed that night I was trying to make myself remember more details of possibly being molested when I was a child (I have some random memories/feelings but it doesn't tell me who, where or how old).

I was listening to a meditation tape and it helped me remember a time when my mom tried to commit suicide (she slit her wrist and I seen the blood and razor in the bathroom) I had forgot about it until that night I was listening to the tape doing memory recall, but couldn't remember anything about a violation.

Anyway I had that dream which seems to indicate something of an assault and sexual nature, but I can't seem to pull it all together.

Sorry to hear that your having bad dreams. There must be something in the air because I had another icky one two nights ago where I was feeling overwhelmed but it didn't wake me.

Take care
Tammy

 

[Awakening]

Tammy, thanks for your interpretation. I think dream 3 may mean something else as it's reoccuring and between my old home and my current home I'm just not sure what. At the moment I don't have too much on, but maybe it's more psychological that I feel I do?

I think there must be something in the air - I had a bad dream last night but it didn't disturb me.

In real life I've started having massages in the same office as where I see my therapist. In a different room, and obviously not my therapist but a female massage therapist who I really like - she does psychosomatic massage (she has experience with trauma clients basically and so is sensitive to that).

So in my dream I go in the office to have my massage but the massage is with a man called Michael. (the name Michael I'm not sure if significant, but my aunt who was married to my abuser went on to marry a lovely man named Michael)

At first I'm apprehensive about being massaged by a man but I'm in a safe place (therapists office), and so I go ahead. And it's a nice massage, it feels nice although it doesn't have the normal relaxing effect I get from my normal therapist. However during the massage I'm in the foetal position and he holds me like he would a child and it's incredibly soothing & comforting.

The massage finishes and I realise I misjudged him, it was okay and it was nice to have that experience with a man, yet I still prefer my female therapist - who I suddenly remember at this point in the dream.

But then something happens there are 3 of us (3 women/girls) but it's all a bit blurry. But Michael attacks all of us violently, one of us I'm pretty sure is killed, and there is blood all over the walls dripping down.

But during it all I'm fairly calm, I feel it's something though that we should probably hide, even though technically I realise Michael should be in trouble. But because I can't remember exactly how the violence happened I don't really feel I can say anything.

What's my story exactly? That Michael was nice, safe & comforting and then there was some act of violence which killed one of us (yet I'm still alive) and there is blood on the walls, none of it makes sense.

I see the other woman (of the 3 of us) walking around vague, confused, clearly in shock and she is cradling a baby. The woman is actually a celebrity of the tv show neighbours but also one of 'me'.

I tell her we need to clean the walls to get rid of the blood. All she can manage is "I tried, I tried, I tried so hard but I couldn't get rid of it"

So then I try but it just changes from bright fresh blood to dark wine colour. Its not as dramatic, and some has been cleaned away but it's clear it has permanently stained the walls.

I wake up and I feel fine. It seems like this dream should be disturbing but it hasn't disturbed me on any level. That's the bit I find interesting.

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi Awakening,
I think you finally found some peace inside yourself with your traumas and problems. Kind of like you know it's there, but you have accepted it (based on the dream).

That's how most of my unpleasant dreams are. They have some weird images but I don't get all freaked out during the dream like I used to. I am able to remain calm through most of the imagery.

It's really nice to have an unpleasant dream without all of the drama/emotions attached to it for a change. Every once in awhile I have a nightmare with all the drama and wake up in fear, but that doesn't happen very often.

I'm happy for you and I think you made a break through. I bet within the next year you will find that a lot of your weird dreams won't have such a bad effect on you like they once did. Don't expect to see a big improvement immediately but one by one they will get better.

As far as the dream symbols, I will give you a better interpretation of them later because I'm not feeling good today. I did want to point out that it appears that your dreams are going to start getting better.

Take care
Tammy

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

Hi Awakening, I looked at dream 3 again and have a few suggestions, but I really don't know for sure what it means. One theory could be that your looking toward the future to much instead of living in the present moment. Or maybe your feeling disorganized or having a hard time focusing on some things.

The other dream:

If this were my dream I'm starting to trust myself and feel more at ease with the methods I'm using to heal. However, I don't feel complete just yet. The massage therapist is my masculine side. Maybe I'm in the fetal position to keep myself protected because I'm not 100% in tune with everything I'm doing. I'm still reacting to life based on emotions and not thinking as much with logic. But at least I've made a break through and know how to handle situations logically and can incorporate that into my new methods of healing.

Once I've realized I let the some of my masculine traits help me heal everything changes and now I'm back into an emotional state of feeling as if I let something violent happen. Incorporating masculine traits into my personality can be a strange feeling at first so it will produce some uncomfortable emotions that may seem violent.

All of the woman are aspects of my personality and one was killed off by my masculine counter part. This change needs to happen so I can achieve balance with my feminine and masculine. I see blood which could indicate that I am loosing my passion for that part of myself that was killed off for the greater good. I feel that it is something to hide because my dreaming mind is related to my waking mind and knows killing is bad, yet there is some relief to letting this go. So it's hard to make sense of any of this.

I see another aspect of myself who is confused and cradling a baby. Babies can represent new ideas/thoughts or they can be seen as a responsibility or a burden. (You will have to decide what the baby means here)

As I clean up the blood in order to have more energy to devote to life, it seems as though it changes. The negative feelings are transforming. The blood is gone and now there is just a reminiscence of the past stains/scars.

Hope this was helpful
Take care
Tammy