No Escape

You can never recall the incident specifically. But you can distantly never forget that dark nocturnal shadow of fear. The one that chased you, once upon a night, through the empty neighborhood as you lied wrapped between your bed sheets. The rollercoaster feeling in the deepest part of your stomach, which gripped the very breath you fumbled to find, as you were falling quickly to the inevitable pavement below. Only to wake suddenly to a cold sweat and the chilled breeze of your empty bedroom.

That these magnificent vivid Hollywood productions of our brain occur is conceded by modern science and the theological societies of the world. Not often are the specific details of the horrifying experience remembered but the incredibly realistic feeling of fear and terror they impress on us are immovable objects in the museum of our memories.

However we want to know not where they come from neurologically, but if they originate from something in our daily lives, or if they result from a traumatic event of some kind, or are a premonition alluding to an oncoming train of events in our lives. So to be more concise in my question, are hidden trepidations revealed in our dreams or are they simply reflecting the known worries we may have? For this is the fundamental question that has been discussed since the work of Aristotle to our present ideas about dreams.

Instead of trying to rephrase the entire library of information, documented by many scholarly philosophers and modern psychologist, I decided to research about the most commonly reported nightmares people experience and then seek opinions that could help illuminate ideas about them.

Researchers say that 60% of all dreams are related to stress or anxiety. × Also nightmares are estimated to be experienced at a much higher rate in children, 20 to 39 percent in children between ages 5 -12.≈

Nightmare.info lists the most highly reported nightmares as being chased of some kind, falling, being in class and unprepared for impending test, drowning, witnessing a murder, teeth falling out, or showing up to some crowded place like school or work and being the only one naked.

Some of my own nightmares fall into one of these fright filled categories, so I wanted to see what kind of nightmares people on campus had experienced lately. Also if their occurrences could be easily linked to a specific stress or anxiety related origins and if there was a higher rate of the nightmare experience during their childhood.

So I randomly surveyed 20 people on the Auraria Campus to see how common these kinds of dreams are among them. I based my questioning on the idea that nightmares were more frequently experienced by children and adolescence. Also that fear or anxiety may have had a big part in the reason the nightmares occurred. Of the 20 surveyed, 18 out of 20 reported to have had a nightmare in one of the common categories. Also 15 out of the 20 reported to that more nightmares occurred frequently as a child ages 5-12. Significantly surprising was that 19 out of 20 said that they could directly relate having these nightmares as a result of stress, anxiety or an emotional state of mind at the time.

The most surprising factor was that only 1 out of the 20 said that they had a nightmare recently they could actually remember. This was very insightful about the fact that hardly are the details of nightmares remembered, but the impression of the feelings that were invoked is scarcely forgotten.

In order to shed a little more light on the topic I decided to interview one of CCD’s psychology teachers. Diana Joy is a new addition to the CCD faculty and she is also an adjunct professor for Metro and Argosy University at Denver as well as being the advisor for Psibeta, which is the Nation Honor Society in psychology chapter for CCD. She graduated in 1986 with a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and has over 20 years in medical practice in a variety of different fields.

The first thing we discussed was the definition of nightmare itself. As the nightmare is defined as ; a dream occurring during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that results in feelings of inescapable terror, fear or extreme anxiety .× However how people define a nightmare may differ; where as some people may perceive an unpleasant dream as a nightmare and some must be outright terrifying. So for our purposes we want to include all.

Next we discussed the involvement of memory and how it relates to our dreams. As found in our student survey, most people could not recall not only the most recent dream they may have had, but neither recalls specifically any dream they have experienced. Because the time the most dreams occur, during the deep stages of REM sleep, our memory does not operate fully during that time leaving us only to vaguely remember the last dream that was occurring before we awoke. As just as some people may have a better memory than others, likewise some people remember more dreams than others. So it is not that you are actually having more dreams but simply just that you remember more than someone else. Lending some credibility to the idea that more important are the feelings invoked because of the dream then the actual details themselves.

Finally, I wanted to discuss some of the most common specific dreams that people experience and what are some reasons that could be linked to our own anxieties and fears? So my original question was going to be that of; why do people experience falling dreams? Or see their teeth falling out? However after discussing the topic with her, I found that almost all of the causes could be derived from the same variables. Regardless of the specific dream it’s the variables in our daily lives that could determine the origin of our dreams. So it is in essence the totality of our brain, not only trying to make sense of the worries around us, but possibly bringing subconscious worries to our attention. So the cause for someone having a falling dream can be attributed to many different variables. To where as many people have many different fears ranging from fear of social rejection, possible physical harm, isolation, inability to compete a task, or even fear of destroying a current relationship amongst many other fears. So where one person may experience a dream of their teeth falling out because of their inability to secure a much wanted job, another may experience a similar dream because they are growing into a new area of life and therefore are dreaming of their old teeth falling out in order to make room for new ones. It’s obvious the possibilities of origin can be endless as the variables are so broad.

So because of these ideas I thought the next logical step would be to help students identify the possible reasons of nightmares and help to find good coping methods for them. First of all professor Joy and I discussed some ways students could help to evaluate why they may be having certain dreams. First of we may want to identify the factors in our lives that may be causing us anxiety. For example, financial situations, intimate relationship problems, living conditions, work related stressors, and any other reasons we may be experiencing a high amount of stress.

Next she told me that our actual sleeping patterns and environment could be closely related to our dreams. So we must ask ourselves; am I getting the right amount of sleep? Is the environment I sleep in related to comfort and relaxation, or is it cluttered and disorganized? Am I maintaining a consistent amount of sleep or is my sleep time erratic? This evaluation of our sleeping area and patterns can help to alleviate some of our dreaming problems.
Also we did explore the variables of mental disorders, post-traumatic stress, or the effects of drugs and alcohol, and the great difference in experience with these variables. But because they change the dynamics of dreams extremely, let’s just conclude that these variables in themselves must be dealt with on another level of therapy.

As a final point we talked about ways that a person can evaluate their dreams and deal with them. One method which has seen recent success, developed by Barry Krakow of the University of New Mexico∞, is to immediately wake and record the event of the dream. So when you wake up grab a pen and a pad and just begin to write about your dream in detail, not necessarily in good sentence structure but more like a free writing exercise. This may help dealing with uncomfortable dreams. Also another method employed by Krakow is that shortly after the dream to change the outcome of the dream. For example if we have experienced a dream that’s feelings continue to linger throughout our day, just take a few minutes and close your eyes.

Imagine the dream over again, but this time change what may have happened. So if you were in a class and the teacher throws a test at you that you’re unprepared for, maybe this time envision that you are fully prepared for the test. This has shown outstanding success in Krakow’s studies with children experiencing nightmares.

Also not to be forgotten are the simple stress reduction methods and exercises. So getting your stress management in better order, or trying something new like Yoga, meditation, or breathing methods. Whatever may help you deal with your particular stressors better.

In close it is inevitable that at some time we are going to experience these nocturnal terrors of the night. It is an inescapable occurrence we are all going to have to deal with in our lives. The variables in which they originate from seem to be closely related to stress, anxiety and possibly emotional state of mind.

So knowing these factors can give us the insight to the need to explore variable in our daily lives that may be causing these dreams. By employing a learning method like recounting the dream, imagining it over again and changing the outcome, or utilizing some form of stress management can help us not only in our daily life but in the time our eye lids are closed to the world.