Whether we are being chased, our teeth are falling out, or we are standing naked in front of a lecture hall, everyone has experienced a nightmare in some form or another. After recently having a particularly graphic and terrifying one, I decided to look into why we have nightmares and what it means to have certain ones.
On average, people have about four to six dreams a night normally during the REM stage (Rapid Eye Movement) of our sleep cycles. While the prefrontal cortex part of the brain isn't really activated, the other parts are still as active as we are when we are awake. This means that while this part of the brain isn't activated, nothing is guiding what the rest of your brain is doing. This explains why we don't always remember our dreams; part of our brains aren't activated, so we aren't focusing on remembering what is happening in the dream. This also explains why we have some bizarre dreams that sometimes turn into nightmares. Since the REM stage gets longer and longer the closer you are to waking up, your dreams or nightmares become more intense and longer as well. This often causes you to wake up wondering what in the world that dream or nightmare was really about.
Because your dreams come from your subconscious, what you dream about is a reflection of your mental state. If something is bothering you in your life, you are more likely to have a nightmare representing what is going on in that situation. This also extends to nightmares occurring because of anxieties over events or traumatic experiences that have happened in your past. That being said, there are also idiopathic nightmares which happen randomly from time to time regardless of your mental state.
Some of the most common nightmares often have an explanation for their occurrence. For instance, if you have a nightmare about failing a test, it is said to be related to a doubt in self-confidence, feeling unprepared in life, and not reaching your full potential. If your nightmare is about dying, it can indicate a fear of failure. A nightmare of spiders suggests that you are being manipulated or that you are manipulating someone else. Dreaming that you are naked in front of everyone indicates that you might feel socially inadequate, vulnerable, and that some social aspect of your life is open to ridicule. Being chased indicates that you are running away from something in your life. Finally, your teeth falling out indicates that you are feeling helpless in a situation or are insecure about appearance and interactions with others.
Now that we know a little bit more about the cause of nightmares and common explanations for nightmares, it will be easier to figure out what our subconscious is trying to tell us. With this, we will hopefully be able to have fewer nightmares altogether.
