I have recurring nightmares during times of stress where I am in the water with sharks. Most times, I am faced by an ocean and forced to go in...I jump in the water, open my eyes, and see sharks approaching. Sometimes I can see the sharks swimming around before I jump in, and sometimes I just see the body of water and know there are sharks in there. Sometimes there are swarms of sharks, sometimes there is only one. Sometimes they attack, sometimes I recognize it is a dream and know they won't hurt me, but I feel an intense fear during these dreams. They are always great white sharks, sometimes of an unusually large size.

Last night, I dreamt of the body of water and knew there was sharks, but when I jumped in, there were passive whales breaching and swimming casually. In the dream, I had an "out of body" experience where I watched myself being hunted by the sharks. I looked at the whales and compared the sizes of the sharks and thought "Why would the great whites be bigger than the whales?" Then a shark jumped out of the water and attacked me.

Any ideas as to what the recurring nightmares and last night's dream means?