The 10 Most Common Nightmares and What They Mean

The Nightmare: Snakes

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Our associations to specific symbols in our dreams need to be applied when trying to figure out the deeper meaning behind a dream, but there are what we call ‘archetypal’ meanings that can typically apply to most of us. That being said, snakes most often represent a toxic person in our life. Someone who is exhibiting low down behaviour that could either be harming us or has the potential to harm us in some way.

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The Nightmare: Being Chased

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This dream is caused by avoidance and most commonly experienced by those who run away from issues instead of tackling them head-on. This dream is letting you know that the longer you run from the issue, the longer it will continue to cause you problems.

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The Nightmare: Falling

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The downward motion is what is at play here. This dream tends to happen when we are feeling let down by someone or something in real life. When plans fall through when something you had high hopes for doesn’t work out, or whenever something brings down your general mood, the subconscious result could be a dream where you’re falling from a great height and heading into the unknown.

This is also a common dream for people that suffer from mental health issues and can be a warning from their body that they are about to “fall” into another depressive episode.

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The Nightmare: Dying

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Death is the end of life, but to the dreaming mind, death is simply the end of life as you currently know it. You can dream of death when something in your life is coming to an end or significantly changing, like when a relationship ends, when you change careers, or when you first find out you’re pregnant. These are life-changing moments that the subconscious will equate with death… the end of the old you.

If you dream of someone else dying, then there is likely some sort of change happening with that person or a shift in your relationship with that person. It is common to dream of our child dying when they reach different phases of life: when they start walking, when they go to school, when they learn to drive, when they get married etc.

Death dreams allow us to recognise changes in our lives so that we can let go of what we no longer need and become more open to the change to come.

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The Nightmare: Drowning

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A drowning nightmare occurs in those feeling in over their heads with something, such as responsibilities, debt or emotions. Like the falling dream, there is the downward pull at play here, although there is a bit more control involved with a drowning dream.

So pay attention to the struggle you experience trying to stay above or get to the surface of the water. What struggle in your real life feels similar? That’s what your dream is commenting on. What in your real life would serve as a life raft for you?

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The Nightmare: Being cheated on

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If you’ve previously experienced infidelity in a relationship, dreaming about it in the present indicates that there are still levels of distrust within you that need to be addressed.

However, if infidelity has never been an issue for you and this dream seems to be coming out of nowhere, then it is likely alerting you to something in your current relationship that feels like a third wheel. Your partner may be working too much, spending too much time on a side hustle, dedicating too much of his free time to gaming, or maybe a new baby is taking up all the time and attention you used to have for each other.

Whatever it is, your subconscious is bringing this to the surface so you two can figure out how to make up for lost time.

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The Nightmare: Killing someone

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Whereas death is a natural ending, murder is a forced one. So if you are murdering someone in your dream, you are probably actively working to change or end something negative in your real life. If you’ve recently quit smoking, initiated a break-up or divorce, or if you’ve changed eating habits and have begun to lose weight then you are likely to dream of murder.

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The Nightmare: Being lost

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This dream is often caused by indecision or uncertainty in real life, and the idea of not knowing “which direction” to take to reach a goal. We tend to say, “I’m lost” when we can’t figure out directions or when trying to keep up with a confusing conversation. Our dreams have a neat way of bringing figures of speech and metaphors to life

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The Nightmare: Bugs

When something or someone is annoying or “bugging” us, we may find that bugs start to infest our nightly dreams! The more bugs in your dream or the larger the bug, the bigger the problem is in waking life.

Bugs have been a prominent symbol in many people’s dreams since the pandemic started. We often refer to sickness as “a bug that’s going around” that we don’t want to be bitten by!

The Nightmare: Teeth falling out

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Dreams that involve a doomed trip to the dentist are most often linked to communication issues in our real life. Losing teeth during a nightmare is most often connected to allowing something out of your mouth the previous day that you shouldn’t have, like a secret or someone’s personal business.

If you regularly say things without thinking first, if you don’t have a filter, or if you tend to say things you instantly regret, you are likely to experience this dream.

Another common element of this dream is how you’re going to look with missing teeth. This tends to be tied to the conscious concern about how others perceive you after what you have allowed out of your mouth.

 

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