Nightmares
Interpreting a Reoccuring Nightmare

If you find yourself having a reoccurring nightmare, you will want to get to the core of what this dream is really about, what it is trying to tell you. When dream interpretation is applied to a reoccurring dream or nightmare, you will really want to record all that you can about the episode.

Depending on how many times you have had the same nightmare, you will want to write it down each time it happens as if it were the first. Now that may seem silly, but it is actually very important, you might find that you will remember something more than you did the last time or that there may be significant variation within the nightmare each time; or you may find that there is no variation, which is valuable information as well. It is a good idea to do this at least 2-3 times, you can do more but in order to really analyze this nightmare effectively I suggest not doing it any less.

After you have written in your dream journal the account of your nightmare several times, you will want to get a colored pen, I am a big fan of the red pen, it stands out and allows you to easily keep track of your side notes. Go through each account of the dream, have your red pen handy, and underline the things about the nightmare that stand out most to you.

Once you have done that, go back and look at all of the dream journal entries and look for the similarities in each, for example, if you are running in the woods and see a large tree in the first journal entry, and your are running in the woods and you see a large tree in the second entry, but in the third entry you are running in the woods and the tree is gone, you will want to make a note of that. Follow that formula for each of the main things within your nightmare that stand out.

Then go back over the nightmare entries again, this time take note of the “little things” that are going on as well and once you have done that, write down all the similarities and the differences, if any, of all the entries. Then ask yourself what is the message? Try using the following questions as a guide(you will come up with many of your own, jot them down, they come in handy with all of your dreamworks):

Where does the nightmare take place?
Who are the people in the nightmare?
What colors do you see?
Is it daytime or nighttime?
Do I hear any sounds?
What am I feeling at each of the “main” sequences of the nightmare?
How does the nightmare end?
How do I feel when I wake up?
Do I recognize something in my everyday life that seems to be related in any way, albeit direct or indirect?
If I had to tell someone what this nightmare was about I would say …

These are all simply suggested questions to get you started thinking about the entire nightmare, not just the “big tree” as I mentioned in an earlier example. It is important to become aware of all of the aspects of your nightmares as well as any dream you have.