Are Grieving Episodes Precipitating Nightmares?

Life lesson: We may not like some messages, but maybe we should listen.

I had a dream again last night. Actually, it was just after I had gone to sleep, maybe just an hour or so after I had dozed off. The other dreams are in the early morning, typically an hour or so before I wake up on my own. It is so terrible to have these dreams, whenever they occur.

Again, in the dream, my wife was making a bed up for sleep. It was very narrow, way too narrow for me to join her. There was another bed. Someone had claimed it. I was out. I wanted to sleep with my wife. She just went on with what she was doing, ignoring me.

I wish some of you brainiacs out there would tell me what is happening. Obviously there is a message. It has occurred with the same theme too many times. Obviously, also, I don't want to know.

I don’t know if there is a “there” out there, where spirits roam, where they can visit us mortals. I consider myself a scientific person. This is not scientific. I do know when this visit happens, it leaves me bereft.

Bad dreams or not, things needed to get done. I started to pack for my Spring migration. I picked up a box with her special pillow in it. It set me off. The grief claimed my entire body. When these episodes occur, they make me so weak I can barely move. I was down for over an hour, then didn’t have much energy left to do anything.

I don't know if these grieving episodes, with such energy loss, precipitate the nightmares. It may be a vicious cycle.

For sure dreams organize, categorize, solve problems and sometimes just like to be bizarre. They are an important part of the sleep cycle. They are active components, different from the stages that refresh and heal. The sleep stages have been validated. Dreams are subject to interpretation.

Way back in time when I was doing seasonal work, I would have back-to-work nightmares. They would start well before the target start date. I could expect to get them and not be too alarmed. They were still nightmares, emotional thieves and energy thieves. I was there on the wrong day. I couldn’t find the right building, the doors were locked. There were no other people there. Many of us would have similar nightmares. The messages in those nightmares were obvious — anxiety with new beginnings.

How can I re-enter life when I get so enmeshed with what isn’t. Is she telling me to move on? Is that the message? I don’t want to move on without her. I want her with me. Maybe she is telling me I must move on, that I am stuck. I have to open new doors.

That is so hard.

Are you stuck? Let me know how you are doing. I care.

Sincerely,

Lynn Brooke

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