Dreams: zombie apocalypses & losing teeth

After a long day on campus, I crave the sweet zzz’s of sleep. However, restless nights recently have become an occurrence thanks to bad dreams (…aka nightmares).

This morning I woke up from a horrific dream. I had been proposed to while in an ice-skating rink while my closest friends and family cheered (weird I know) … only I didn’t want to be proposed to by this person. Although this may not sound like nightmare material, you can’t deny the scare of an unexpected proposal!

A few days ago, I had my usual frequent dream – a zombie apocalypse! Have you had this nightmare before? It’s always so realistic – and not like the dumb, slow zombies you see in some films. They are always quick, ‘I want to eat your brains ASAP’ type of zombies. I’m always in a hazy scuffle to try and escape while also using weapons to defend myself. Violence in dreams is terrifying – why is my brain giving me such a fright during sleep? Perhaps I should lay off the zombie apocalypse films (but I can’t help it - Hollywood really does pump out a lot of those films). 

The most frequent nightmare I get relates to... teeth! It may be that my teeth are starting to fall out, or my teeth become super wobbly, or someone is pulling them out – whatever the scenario, the pain always feels so real. I attribute this nightmare to my unfortunate run ins with orthodontists (I wasn’t blessed with perfectly straight teeth). And I’m finding that my brain still remembers the pain of tooth extractions – therefore, I tend to have nightmares with very realistic pain.

It’s interesting the types of studies that have been done of dreams – what do they mean? How come some people experience more nightmares? How come others don’t dream at all? To some extent, stress and anxiety can trigger nightmares. Which I suppose correlates with my increase of nightmares recently (ahh final semester stress).

The great thing about dreams or nightmares are... they aren’t real and they are temporary. And every once in a while, you may have a dream that you wish was real (like travelling around the world). I love the dreams where I can fly (how cool are they?). And it's so fun being aware that you're dreaming and controlling your dreams! So, don’t forget - before you suspect a nightmare, you may find yourself in a marvellous dream!