What is Dream Anxiety: Recognition & Treatment

Someone has rightly said, “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting it to control it.”

The world in which we live demands perfection. It confuses us with our WANTS from our NEEDS. Therefore, we want everything to go the way we want to but when it doesn’t happen that way, we consume ourselves with irrational thoughts and try to drink and smoke our fears away.

Rather than dealing with reality (no matter how unrealistic or wicked it is), we try to find an escape. When we try to run away from it, the problem gets solved only temporarily. We will be relieved for a short period but we no longer will be in mental peace and solitude. When our mind is not free with such thoughts and fears, it leads to anxiety which can trouble us 24/7.

We all need at least 7-8 hours of sleep because it prepares us for the upcoming day, it helps us to think clearly and lower our risk for mental or physical health problems, but when our mind is constantly thinking, it doesn’t allow our body to relax and sleep peacefully. Even when we are in a deep sleep, our conscious mind becomes the source of certain kinds of dreams and nightmares.

After all, “Dreams often reveal feelings that we have hidden or repressed, because dreams are a reflection of our unconscious mind, our emotional health.”

It happens with almost everyone, we are in good sleep and suddenly out of nowhere we fall from the staircase and lose control over ourselves, and within a minute, we will be awake, catching our breath, sweating, or maybe crying. This is an irritating dream, right?

Do you have such dreams where you are lost in the middle of a water body and there’s nothing you can see except deep water and there’s no way to save yourself?

Well, it happens when you believe that you are a lonely person and there’s nobody around us. Water in our dreams acts as a symbol of our emotions and feelings and when we dream about drowning, it indicates that our emotions are overpowering us and getting a little out of control. It can also mean that we are under a lot of stress and pressure and we have nobody who can save us.

You are dreaming that you are at a different place and you don’t remember who you are, what you are doing there and you feel embarrassed of not remembering anything that you also notice that people are judging and laughing at you. Such dreams occur when you’ve “performance/ social anxiety” or maybe a stage fright!

What’s that one subject which scares you the most? For me, it’s MATHS, and no kidding, sometimes I dream about having a math test, and all of a sudden, I wake up to find that I don’t study that subject anymore! That’s stupid but you know why it happens?

One basic reason is being scared of doing/ solving it that we don’t practice it enough, we ignore and avoid it the best we can. We have to settle for less mark and we forget such fears won’t be leaving us sooner than we thought they would.

Sometimes, we might dream that we have lost someone very close to us. It can be in the form of betrayal/ abandonment/ death/ miscommunication etc. it makes us vulnerable and we take some time to get back to reality. Such dreams are scary but they also remind us to be kind to everyone, to be in touch. It assures that the best we can do for the people is just being there for them and helping each other throughout the journey. We will lose people, we will lose everyone but we will never lose memories and they should be the happy ones!

Do you remember it was believed that the world will come to an end in 2012 that everything will be destroyed and there will be nothing left here?

We have news about climate change that due to a rise in temperatures, glaciers would meltdown and we will run out of water, clean atmosphere, flora, and fauna that would bring an end to our mother earth.

This pandemic has given rise to so many emotional, mental and physical issues that we actually believe that there will be nothing left and everything will be over!

Such dreams are due to high functioning anxiety and fear of tomorrow that it becomes impossible to live without it.

Before sleeping, write whatever thoughts you are having. Try to maintain a journal about day-to-day activities, what you have been doing, and feeling. Write whatever comes to your mind without any fear of judgment because nobody’s going to look at it and it will be protected forever.

Meditating every day in the morning can clear your mind and helps you to focus on your thoughts in a better way. Remember, you will feel distracted while meditating but you have to focus on your breath and the thoughts you have.

I know it is next to impossible to stop thinking about the future but all I am saying is that don’t be so consumed by it that rather than enjoying the moment you ruin it because after all, you have no control over the future, you can only live now.

When you suddenly wake up from sleep due to such a dream/ nightmare, try to calm yourself down by drinking lots of water and taking deep breaths. It will relax your mind and you will get back to sleeping very quickly.

If such dreams are happening again and again, then do talk to someone whom you trust you will try to understand your problem. Seek professional help that will lower your stress and will strengthen your self-esteem. They will also aware of the trauma you might have gone through and provide a safe place for you to vent/ catharsis.

Avoid looking at the screen one hour before you sleep and one hour after you wake up, that will not allow you to consume any negative news once you are awake or before your sleep time.

While in stress, play that one song that soothes you, it can calm your nerves.

Avoid eating late at night and consuming junk. Eating healthy would give you proper energy to stay productive and you don’t divert your mind in any irrational thought.

When you wake up due to an anxiety hidden dream, practice the grounding technique in which you work backward from 5, use your senses to list things you notice around you. For example, you might start by listing five things you hear, then four things you see, then three things you can touch from where you’re sitting, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.