When is a Nightmare Not a Nightmare?

I asked Google AI a riddle. When is a nightmare not a nightmare? AI fumbled. It came back with the response, "That is a terrible riddle. A terrible riddle is not a nightmare."

Seriously? That's the best AI could do?  

I have a nephew who likes to plug his dreams into AI to get their meaning. I'm not convinced AI is up to the task. 

AI was however able to deliver me several riddles where the answer was nightmare.  

Riddle: I spread my shadows in dead of night, and fill your restless mind with right. But know I'm not the truth I claim, just nocturnal fancies without a name. 

Ah, AI is on to something here: “But know I'm not the truth I claim.” Indeed, what a nightmare may appear to be saying on the surface, is not what it is actually telling you.  

Being given a cancer diagnosis in a dream, for instance, does not foretell the same in waking life. Likewise for losing all your teeth.

Common nightmares about being chased by bears, being surrounded by snakes, a house on fire, and running around stark naked when you're late for your final exam, all have meanings that are different than what you may think.

As in most dreams, the meaning lies buried under the symbols and metaphors. 

Maybe your dream felt frightening because you woke up with your heart pounding. But that monster in your dream, or falling from a great height, or being unable to breathe underwater may very well have been a positive thing that you just interpreted as negative. 

What's the Purpose of a Nightmare?  

For one thing, it gets your attention!  

Your Higher Self is always giving you information every night through your dreams. But if you're not listening, or not remembering it, and then not taking action, you will continue to have dreams that will tell you the same thing over and over.

It's like somebody pinging rocks at your window. If you don't notice, eventually they will through a brick at you. You will certainly notice that!  

A nightmare is a guaranteed way that you are going to remember your dream.  

Like that brick, a nightmare pretty much guarantees that you're going to pay attention. You're more likely to remember your nightmares because they leave you feeling restless or anxious or even fearful.

Any heightened emotional state is what that nightmare is after. Look at me! Remember me!   

If you don't listen to the pebbles, and then you don't listen to that brick, guess what? Your Higher Self is going to get bolder. The next dream might have you being flung off of a cliff. You wake up panting in fright.

Think of your nightmare as not a buzzer, but a bull horn. 

Nightmares, like all of your dreams are messages from your subconscious indicating where you have unresolved issues, fears or emotional imbalances that need attention. They are asking you to look at something from your past that needs your attention! 

Remember, your higher self is never going to ever give you a problem to address that you are not ready to face. You're getting this nightmare now because you're ready to face the issue. 

Nightmare seems scary because they're trying to get you to face something that you don't think you are ready to face yet.   

Did I Have a Nightmare Because I Watched a Vampire Movie? 

Watching that vampire movie right before bed might certainly have set the mood for some of your dreams.

Most likely, however, you didn't dream of what was in the movie, you dreamt of something that left you equally as frightened.

It's still a message from your Higher Self about something you need to deal with.

Think of that vampire movie as a signal you sent to your Higher Self saying that you're ready for an attention grabbing dream. 

A Small Case Study of a Recurring Nightmare 

One man I talked to had a recurring nightmare since childhood. He dreamt of always suffocating.

In one dream, he was in an enclosed place as the oxygen was removed. In another dream he was being smothered. In all of his dreams he could barely breathe.  

When I analyzed his dreams, I found in them that his mother had over swaddled him as a baby. He confirmed this and told me that he had to be rushed to the doctor once when he had turned blue - his mother had wrapped him so tightly that he was unable to breathe.

60 + years later, he was having these nightmares because that trauma was still stuck inside him.It had manifested in him as being unable to breathe whenever he went to sleep.

Once he became aware of the cause of the nightmares, and implemented some nighttime breathing exercises, his nightmares went away. 

Don't Run Away From Your Nightmares  

When you do have a nightmare, don't run away from it. And don't decide to pass on writing it down because you don't want to think about it again.

That nightmare is precisely the dream that you need to record and have analyzed. Your dreams show your behaviors and attitudes that prevent your growth and keep you stagnated. This one was screaming at you.

If you don't listen, your nightmares aren't going to go away, they're just going to keep banging on your dream door until you do listen. When you answer the door and acknowledge the issues and emotions that are stored within your soul, then you can start to release them.

When you do that, your spirit and physical body will automatically start to heal.  

Another Way to Think of Nightmares  

From a frequency point of view, nightmares are simply lower vibrations, fear-based vibrations that are being released from your energy space so that you can acknowledge them.

When you consciously release suppressed patterns of fear through awareness, then over time those bad dreams will decrease.  

Many people think that by turning away from the fear and suppressing it, it will go away. But the truth is that you must bring a fear to your conscience awareness. When you do, you can release it from influencing your energetic vibration. If you shine a light into the darkness (that scary unknown), the shadows can not remain.

By confronting and illuminating the hidden parts of yourself (becoming aware), you grow and transform those patterns of darkness into a higher vibration.  

When you bring awareness to fear based thoughts, you are no longer allowing those thoughts to influence your vibration and  become part of your reality. 

Stars Can't Shine Without Darkness 

There are going to be times in life that you struggle. And there are going to be times that you have nightmares. But these times are stepping stones toward finding out who you truly are.

These times are essential parts of your journey. If  you can see them for that, and in them find strength and motivation, they will guide you.

It is through understanding the messages in your dreams and your darkest nightmares that you can shine.