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Chapter 5
Recurring Dreams and Nightmares
How often do you have recurring dreams or
nightmares? Check your answers to Section H on the questionnaire with Ms Survey
Dreamer’s experience:
Ms Survey Dreamer has recurring
dreams (63.1%), mostly one (20.6%) or two (20%) different ones. Her recurring dream is
frequent (31.9%), but although it follows a recurring theme, it is not usually the same in
great detail (41.9%). Her recurring dream is most likely to be about restriction or loss
of some kind, or chase and escape which commonly makes her feel anxious or afraid. She has
experienced nightmares in the last two years (67.5%), but these are rare (25%) and not
recurring (50.6%).
Although recurring dreams can be positive, even
ecstatic, the survey dreamers highlighted the more troublesome recurring dreams or
nightmares. Insufficient people emphasised the positive recurring dreams, so I was unable
to prepare a Profile of Happy Recurring Dreamers! Seven people regarded their recurring
nightmares as ‘frequent’ and these became the ‘nightmare group’ from
which the Profile of a Frequent Nightmare Dreamer shown below was drawn. The profile shows
what else these dreamers share in common.
Profile of a Frequent Nightmare Dreamer 
(Meet the top seven for frequent nightmares)
The illustration summarises the similarities
between the seven survey respondents who suffered frequent nightmares, at least some of
which were recurring. Each of the following points on this conglomerate list holds true
for at least six of the seven people.
THEY:
Approach their problems by thinking or talking
them through
Don’t drink coffee
Drink tea often
Eat white meat often
Read or research areas of personal interest
Are not engaged in formal study
Believe in life after death
Believe in reincarnation
Sleep for eight hours a night
Sleep neither deeply nor lightly, but between the two
Have frequent nightmares, some of which are recurring
Have lucid dreams
Have psychic dreams, but not frequently
Talk to their partners about their dreams
Don’t keep a journal
Experience deja vu, but not frequently
Influence of Diet and Lifestyle
Junk Food
The survey did show a tendency among those who
eat junk food at least every other day to report more nightmares. It is wise not to jump
to any conclusions and suggest that junk food impurities or the high sugar or fat intake
cause nightmares. The common psychological patterns behind eating junk food are well
documented, and it could plausibly be argued that the issues we try to soothe and ignore
through nurturing our palate, opting for chocolate euphoria or hitting the fast food, are
the same issues the nightmares are more insistently bringing up for our urgent
recognition.
Stress and Nightmares
The survey showed that people in the high stress
groups had more frequent nightmares as well as more frequent recurring nightmares.
Problem Solving
People on the survey who described themselves as
worriers, unable to relax, let go or just plain ignore their problems during the day,
suffered more recurring nightmares than average.
Television and Nightmares
Television characters do crop up in our dreams,
and many people commonly blame the impact of television for giving us nightmares or for
fuelling the ‘vivid imagination’ which pervades our dreams.
Surprisingly, recurring nightmares did show up,
not for those who watched heaps of television, but for those survey participants who
viewed only one to ten hours of television each week. A tentative suggestion is that many
people only watch an hour or so of news or current affairs on weekdays and this daily
injection of gloom, doom and high anxiety, especially when it is not balanced by lighter,
more entertaining programs, may be dealt with through nightmares.
Nightmares and recurring dreams are addressed in
Chapter 10, Recurring Dreams or Themes.
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