Bad Dreams: Can Trapped Emotions Cause Bad Dreams?

While some people will be familiar with their dreams, other people won’t be. When some people wake up it is going to be easy for them to remember what took place in most cases and they could keep their dreams alive by writing about what happened.

And for others, they might remember what took place for a short while afterwards and for others, their memory will be completely blank. So during those times when one soon forgets what happened, they are not going to be able to gain any kind of insight from what took place.

The same could be said for the person who doesn’t remember anything when they wake up. However, their outlook could be that they simply don’t dream and therefore they are not missing out on anything.

Does Everyone Dream?

One outlook would be that when someone says they don’t dream it is simply because they are out of touch with their dreams. That part of them is unwilling to embrace what is going on for them and that forgetting them is a way to avoid their inner world. And this avoidance can take place consciously and unconsciously.

Alternatively, it has also been said that when one is at peace within they won’t dream. So based on this, there is another reason why someone wouldn’t remember their dreams. But if one is not experiencing inner peace and they still have no recollection of what their dreams were, then there is likely to be some kind of block.

Unpleasant Dreams

When one has a good meal, they might tell other people about it and yet, when one has a bad meal; it is highly likely that they will tell other people about it. Bad news generally travels faster than good news.

And the same thing applies to ones dreams; if one has a good dream it might soon vanish from their memory once they wake up, but if one was to have a nightmare for instance, the dream could stay with them for a lot longer

Waking Up

Good dreams are not as likely to disturb ones sleep as bad dreams are. Having good dreams is going to allow one to sleep and to wake up feeling good and even refreshed. They could feel inspired and ready to ‘take on the world’, so to speak.

However, when one has bad dreams there is the chance that their night’s sleep will be interrupted. And when they wake up, and that’s if they actually get any sleep, they could feel exhausted and anxious.

Why Do We Dream?

There are a number of views as to why human beings dream and they are all worthy of consideration. One view is that are dreams are full of messages and that they are there to offer guidance. In this case, one is not to look at their dreams in a literal manner but as symbolic representations.

Another outlook is that dreams are the result of everything one has not dealt with in their waking life. So what one doesn’t deal with when they are awake ends up being acted out symbolically when they are asleep.

And although this can create pain, it is simply there to inform one as to what they need to look at. This could be ‘stuff’ what one is fairly conscious of and what they have completely pushed out of their awareness.

The Story Maker

The mind is the story maker and just like how in ones waking life it creates all kinds of meaning, it does the same thing when one is asleep. And the mind can create all kinds of stories when one is asleep and it is easy to get caught up in them. Here, one can end up seeing them as literal and miss out on their symbolic meaning.

This can then cause one to place their attention on what happened in their dream and to think about what this all means at an intellectual level. And if one has experienced a nightmare, then this could cause them to come to all kinds of conclusions.

Example

One could be in a relationship and have a dream where their partner cheats or leaves them. And while this could reflect what might soon happen, it could simply match up with how they feel.

They might be aware of these feelings when they are awake or they may have done their best to ignore them. Here, one could be carrying feelings to do with being abandoned and rejected.

Feelings

Dreams need fuel and at times this can be ones feelings. What these feelings do is give the mind what it needs to create meaning in their waking life and dreams when they are asleep. Just because ones thinking can create how they feel, it doesn’t mean that this is always what happens.

At times, ones feelings can define what goes on inside their head. These feelings don’t just appear out of nowhere though; they can be there because they are trapped in one’s body. So instead of having dreams and focusing on what took place, another approach would be to focus on how one felt.

Awareness

These emotions that are trapped in one’s body could have been there since one was a child and have accumulated throughout their adult life. Once these feelings are released, one may find that they no longer have the same dreams.

And this is because the body will be at peace and this will allow their mind to settle down. With the assistance of a therapist or a healer, one can gradually release them from their body.