The nightmare weirdly common this time of year
The nightmare weirdly common this time of year
While the meaning of our dreams has been studied for years, starting with Dr Sigmund Freud stating dreams were messages from our subconscious—a form of ‘suppressed longing’ and our unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations. Which makes dreams as detailed, dark and graphic as death dreams particularly concerning.
According to experts, dreaming of your own or a loved one’s death is more common over the new year period than any other time—but they also recommend you don’t take them literally. Despite the festive period being prime time for family arguments and tensions running high as everyone gets together, it’s unlikely your dreaming of their dying is a sign you actually want it to happen. Dream analyst Jane Teresa Anderson believes death dreams are a normal reaction to daily life stressors and says they’re very common during the holidays.
‘A lot of people do tend to have death dreams at this time of year,’ she told News Corp Australia, adding this was because people had more time to sleep in and let their dreams play out without interruption. She also cited the pressure to do better and change old habits with New Year’s resolutions: ‘Sometimes our dreams can be our unconscious response to what we’ve decided to kill off or put an end to in our life.’
Dreaming about death—particularly your own death—can be symbolic of a life transformation and indicative that a positive change is happening in your life. ‘Death dreams have a theme of what is ending, what’s changing in your life… this ending is the start of a new beginning.’ Dreaming of your own death can also be a sign of bad habits or self-destructive behaviour that need remedying—metaphorical death rather than literal. They certainly aren’t predictive of an upcoming death.
‘If all those death dreams were predictions we wouldn’t have many people left walking around on the planet!’, Anderson said.
If you are having nightmares in which you die, take a look at your life and consider what might be a reason for change: do you have a weird mole that needs checking out? How’s your diet? Are you under too much stress at work? Are you drinking a bit too much? An unhealthy lifestyle may be the cause for your horrible dreams. If you’re dreaming about other people dying, don’t tell them! ‘I wouldn’t go straight to the person as it does freak them out,’ said Anderson. She recommended trying to understand why you were having the dream and share a logical explanation for it with the person if you do have to tell them. Seeing a loved one die in a dream is usually a way of seeing your true feelings about the person involved: a relationship partner could be a sign you’re ready to move on from the relationship; a parent could suggest an altered relationship or move from dependency; a child could be linked to your feelings about them growing up from a child to a teenager or into adulthood.
They may be scary, they may result in tears and restless nights, but Carl Jung, Freud’s contemporary, said dreams—including death dreams—are simply another way the mind can communicate important things a person may not be able to see consciously.
Impostor syndrome is ‘the psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalised fear that they are going to be exposed as a fraud.’