5 Common Nightmares And Their Meanings

Nightmares are terrifying experiences that can lead to everything from slight trauma to outright fear of sleeping. But nightmares aren’t just horrible dreams that only serve to scare us bring dread. Nightmares can also be useful tools to analyze what our subconscious is telling us we need in our lives, like what we need to work on to improve, what we need to finish or finalize to move forward, and so on.

Here are some of the most common nightmares and what they mean.

1. Dying – one of the most terrifying nightmares, which often jerks a dreamer awake. Oftentimes vivid dreams of death can sear themselves in the psyche of the dreamer, and give a glimpse at what true death will feel, just at that last moment before the life is truly cut.  But death is not necessarily a bad sign. Because nightmares involving death can represent rebirth, or the coming of a new chapter of your life. As well, nightmares that involve graves or tombs may represent a part of yourself that has been lost, or stopped, that you may need to revitalize in order to make your life more meaningful. This may be a passion that has been stopped due to work, or a long lost connection with a friend that you may need to revive.
2. Being trapped, caged, or stuck – especially terrifying for those who have claustrophobia, nightmares that involve being bound and captured, caged like an animal, or being trapped and stuck in things like quicksand or vines, can make the dreamer feel helpless and not in control. This is a reflection of a real-life situation of being stuck, whether it be in the career, a relationship, or in an existing situation where you feel like the dreamer has no power or influence. When recurring dreams like this happen, it may be time to reassess your relationships, career, or current situation in life.
   
   

   

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3. Getting lost – nightmares that start of as a nice dream of journey and exploration and end up being lost and confused, and feeling the fears associated with them, are often a sign of anxiety, confusion, frustration, and a feeling of rejection. These may be caused by perhaps a new venture or job, failing at making relationships or friends, or any situation where the dreamer is starting anew somewhere.
4. Losing teeth – this nightmare is mostly if not always an unsettling experience. It is often accompanied by feelings of dread and fear and loss of confidence and capability. The teeth are symbolic of our ability to live (using teeth to eat our food) and be beautiful (our smile), and when teeth fall out it means the dreamer feels like losing both. When the dreamer tries to gather the falling teeth and return it in the mouth, it is symbolic of exerting effort to repair what they feel they are starting to lose in order to regain confidence and the ability to live or survive.
   
   
5. Being chased – nightmares that involve being chased is symbolic of the dreamer escaping or running away from things that need attention, often represented by the things chasing the dreamer. It can be anything from a mob of people, to wild animals, and even aliens and ghosts and monsters. It is said that sometimes the dreamer will have a good idea what needs to be addressed as soon as they wake up even if they didn’t know prior what the chasers are representing.

If you experience any of these five common nightmares, let the fear pass, and analyze your life after. It may lead to drastic, positive changes for your future! But the best way to stop nightmares from happening is to lucid dream. To help guide you in the lucid dream experience, listen to our most popular binaural beats track for lucid dreaming here.

Using a complex pattern of binaural beat and isochronic tone frequencies dedicated to help you achieve good sleep and have lucid dreams, this 8-hour music track is divided into four unique sections. In the first 2 hours we've used frequencies that range from 3-13Hz (Alpha-Theta range) to help calm your mind and feel deeply relaxed. There is a pleasurable feeling of floating and it will give effects such as stress reduction, relaxed awareness, release of serotonin, and an induction to sleep spindles as your mind and body allows itself into sleep. It also contains triggers for creativity and imagery and access to subconscious images as you doze off.

The second and third sections contain more of the Theta waves, which are also present in dreaming, sleep, deep meditation and creative inspiration. As you have already fallen asleep, the binaural beats tap into your subconsciousness as your mind prepares itself into a lucid dream state. The music is more steady so as not to interrupt your sleep.

The fourth and last section returns itself to the Alpha range with a mix of Theta and Delta. This is where deep sleep occurs and more often than not, the dream state. There is a decreased awareness of the physical world. This section also contains the Earth Resonance or Schumann Resonance, which will leave you feeling revitalized upon waking up.

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Set Your Lucid Dream Intentions: Why And How

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The War On Nightmares: Fighting Back With Reality Checks And Lucid Dreaming

To many, dreaming is an amazing experience that they look forward to every day, sometimes from the moment they wake up in the morning. However, dreams can turn terrifying when they become nightmares instead, and when this happens, it can cause the dreamer great distress, and sometimes even make them feel physical effects upon waking up. But what exactly are nightmares, and how can we combat them?

What exactly is a nightmare?

A nightmare, put simply, is a disturbing, terrifying dream, often vividly realistic and almost indistinguishable from reality (despite absurd scenarios), that shake the dreamer from their sleep. As the night goes on, REM sleep becomes progressively longer, so oftentimes people will find themselves experiencing nightmares in the early morning, or perhaps earlier.

Nightmares vary depending on the dreamer’s personal experiences, sometimes influenced by what they have gone through on the day, sometimes drawn from a lifetime of collected stress, bad memories, or traumatic events. And while nightmares have unlimited variations, making each one unique and personal to the dreamer, there are common themes that many people share, and what the possible meanings of each one is. We will discuss all of these in a future blog post soon.

Causes of nightmares

There are many possible causes of nightmares, often associated with the brain being influenced by the actions of, or actions done to, the person. A lot of people experience nightmares when they eat at night, which causes the body to increase its metabolism and make the brain active, causing it to produce vivid images. Drugs and other medication, such as those taken for depression, blood pressure, and even the simple cough and cold, can cause a nightmare reaction. And finally, stress of different forms can cause nightmares. Work stress, personal anxiety, depression, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), can all trigger nightmares.

We previously wrote about ways to prevent nightmares from happening, which can be found here, but what can you do once the nightmare starts? How does one deal with and conquer nightmares?

Your Weapons: Recognition, Reality Checks, And Lucid Dreaming

There is a saying: knowing is half the battle. And this is very true when it comes to fighting nightmares. The first step is to increase self-awareness, and to practice reality checks. We have discussed what reality checks are and what they can do in a previous blog post here, but as a recap, reality check is being able to recognize if you are dreaming or awake. This is a powerful tool when it comes to combating nightmares.

Recognizing that you might be in a dream, and performing a reality check to confirm, can lead to one of two outcomes: waking up, or facing the nightmare head on.

A basic result of performing a reality check and succeeding is waking up, often done out of a compulsive need to get out of a terrifying scenario. Oftentimes, a mind not yet conditioned to take full control of dreams will almost always simply command the brain to wake up. This ends the dream, brings the dreamer back to the waking world, often with nothing more than a terrifying memory of the dream to contend with.

The other scenario is to facing the nightmare. A mind that has been conditioned and trained to perform lucid dreaming can take control of a nightmare after a reality check, and instead of simply waking up and leaving the nightmare, the dreamer then confronts it and experiences it fully, with the knowledge that they are safe and with the intent of trying to understand the nightmare and be stronger against it. Since nightmares are tied to the dreamer’s personal experiences and worries, this method is very useful for people who have recurring nightmares or are experiencing constant anxiety, or if the nightmare is about their fear or phobia, as it builds courage and a healthier mind.

It is important to know however that lucid nightmare is quite different, in that the dreamer knows that they are in a nightmare, but is unable to control or influence it as they would a lucid dream. We will be discussing this in further detail in another blog post soon.

Practicing recognition, reality checks, and lucid dreaming are your weapons in the war on nightmares. And binaural beats can definitely help with that. Listen to this binaural beats track for lucid dreaming and get started on training to fight nightmares!

Electrical Brain Stimulation Triggers Lucid Dreaming

Electrical Brain Stimulation Triggers Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is considered to be exceptional to humans, and it happens when we realize that we are dreaming within a dream, which sometimes allows people to manipulate their sleeping story that are identified during the sequence of dream events. This powerful dream state is quite rare, but scientists say they have discovered the mechanism that triggers lucid dreaming.   

Lucid dreaming has long been appealing to mankind. When you become lucid during a dream and gain control of the dream, the experience itself has been advantageous, thus studied and journaled for centuries. In the recent century, further psychological and scientific studies have resulted in many methods and exercises that can encourage lucid dreams. The prospect of consciously exploring the dream-space can provide insights into the mysteries of the unconscious mind. Lucid dreaming can also be therapeutic in addressing disturbing memories or constant nightmares. 

Scientists made an enormous threshold in understanding the physiology of lucid dreams, which leads to individuals to experience lucid dreams by motivating their brains with specific electrical frequencies. Researchers believed that their findings could help on human consciousness and give way to treat mental illness and post-traumatic nightmares. 

According to Dr. Ursula Voss, of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, lucid dreaming is a very good tool to observe what happens in the brain and what is causally necessary for secondary consciousness. Together with her team, they found out that lucid dreams occur during REM sleep. At the beginning of a sleep cycle, the brain slows from high frequency gamma and beta waves connected with waking and alertness. The guide to brain activity advances through slowing alpha waves to deep sleep delta and theta frequencies. Ironically, the sleep cycle heightens in REM, and the brainwaves speed up. 

Dreams usually occur during REM sleep, when many regions of the brain become visible to be functioning as if it were awake. When you experienced lucid dreaming, there was distinct gamma activity, the highest frequency range of the brainwave, in the frontotemporal region. The frontotemporal region is connected with functioning, decision making, processing complex stimuli, and self-awareness. The team see possibility for lucid dreaming to help people with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or those people that are prone to nightmares to get their fears under control. Any electrical brain stimulation should be conducted under the expert guidance of a physician.

Learn to lucid dream and listen to our Lucid Dreaming 2 HOURS (NO MUSIC) Delta Theta Wave Pure Tone to assist in enhancing the dream experience and to trigger lucid dreaming.

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Dreams vs. Video Games As Alternate Realities

According to a psychologist named Jayne Gackenbach, people who played immersive video games were more likely to report lucid dreams. Gamers never had dream control over anything beyond their dream selves but they also were able to change perspectives from first person to observer as if floating outside of their body. They didn’t code nightmares as “threatening.” Rather, they seemed to be having fun with dream situations that non-gamers coded as nightmares.

Psychologists consider nightmares as one of the symptoms of PTSD, and studies have shown incredibly high rates of nightmares ranging from 71 to 96 percent among PTSD patients. By contrast, just 3 to 5 percent of civilians reported the same levels of nightmares.

Virtual reality simulators have already been used to help PTSD patients gradually adjust to the threatening situations that plague their waking and sleeping thoughts.

But do video games affect your ability to lucid dream? Can lucid dreaming be inspired by video games? Is there any correlation between the two?

Since then, any time a dream has become frightening, the fear has triggered a lucid state. It always follows the same pattern:

· Something in the dream causes fear

· The fear makes you lucid

· You may shout "this is my dream!"

The lucidity allows you to overcome the fear.

Whatever you do during the day can become the kindling for dreams you have at night. Have you ever spent a lot of the day doing a particular activity, and then found yourself doing the same thing in your dream? What if that activity was a type of virtual reality? Would that virtual reality become your dream reality?

No matter what we do in the game, we're still sitting in a comfortable couch in a warm house. The reinforcement that nothing can actually hurt us can transfer into our dream world, transforming our nightmares into lucid dreams.

Finding’s shows how hardcore gaming affects the gamer's experience and reaction to nightmares. They grow resistant to them, in the sense that bad dreams aren't as likely to wake them up, and gamers are more likely to take control of them as a lucid main character and, perhaps, even find them enjoyable. This has rolled over into a theory that gaming can have an effect in dealing with real-life waking threats, as well.

The distinction with between Reality, Virtual Reality, and Lucid Dreams are becoming harder to distinguish. However what is present in all of them is that the brain is a remarkable tool and we are only just beginning to understand its potential. Games have provided Gamers with an introduction into alternative realities allowing Gamers this extra special skill for Lucid Dreaming, as their mind has already been trained to understand that multiple realities can exist at once. How will these new Realities change the world we live in?

If you are new to lucid dreaming or would like to give it a try check out this 8 Hour Lucid Dreaming Track that you play as you fall asleep to induce a Lucid Dream. 

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How to Stop the Nightmares and Bad Dreams

The conscious mind needs to be "turned off" for sleep and dreams to occur. Dreams contain very important messages, even bad dreams or nightmares. When you understand the hidden messages of the unconscious mind, you understand the mistakes you are making. You also learn how to correct these mistakes and do only what is positive for you. Nightmares can be extremely unpleasant, causing fear and anxiety and affecting quality of your sleep. This can lead to physical tiredness and mental stress.

Dreams occur with specific brain waves and images and thoughts different from the normal waking state, so the dream state is usually thought of as a product of the subconscious mind. Images from the present and past are combined in ways experienced as illogical, and the dreamer is usually unable to move so that the dreams are not converted to motion.

Here are the some tips that aimed at cultivating a healthier sleep and dream life.

1. Learn to relax.

Various techniques, tapes, music and supplements are available to promote relaxation. The hemi-sync tapes or CDs can be very useful in learning relaxation. Medication can provide assistance in difficult cases and then can be phased out as new skills are learned.


2. Inhibit intrusive negative imagery and promote positive imagery. 

Positive imagery techniques include developing and practicing thoughts/images of "special places" which are beautiful, safe and comfortable. After these techniques are learned and practiced they can be used to counter the negative images from trauma dreams.










3. Change dream scenarios into more positive and productive dramas. 

Imagery rehearsal treatment is a type of cognitive therapy which has been found very effective in reducing nightmares in insomnia patients. The individual is encouraged to change the dream story in any way that seems right to them, starting with practice on their less intense bad dreams. Practice during the day is also necessary to learn the skills involved in re-scripting dreams. The middle and end of the dream should be changed to make it more positive or acceptable. Because bad dreams are repetitive it is best to write down the new dream script and practice it for short periods of time daily so it becomes a learned habit stronger than the old dream. Like for an example, if you are dreaming of a typhoon or tornado, the new dream could be that the weatherman announces there are no typhoon in the area and the dreamer looks outside to see the sun shining. A fantasy response could be that the dreamer becomes a superperson who fights the tornado and flings it back into the sky while crowds cheer. Pick a positive ending to a disturbing dream, write it down and then practice the new ending while you are awake.



4. Avoid eating before bed.

Eating before bed can trigger nightmares, as food speeds up your metabolism and sends signals to your brain to become more active. Therefore, it's a good idea to cut out bedtime snacks, particularly those that are high in sugar.

5. Get more physical exercise. 

Tiring yourself out with physical exercise is a great way to improve your sleep. You can choose an activity that you enjoy whether it's running, strength training, dancing, rowing or rock climbing and work out 3 to 5 times a week. Schedule it for the morning if you can. Just don't exercise right before bed. It will leave you too amped up for sleep.


Your dreams will have a totally different meaning. They will reflect your progress, instead of reflecting your mistakes. You will be able to make very important future predictions after seeing meaningful dream warnings. Instead of dreaming about dangerous situations and bad events, you’ll see positive dream symbols, and learn many things you ignore.

Now... are you ready to step into the Dream World?

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