[leahcim]

I posted this the other day and nobody responded so I'll put it this way.

Has anyone ever had a dream in which they are trying to get away from something or someone and feel they cannot move?

Has anyone had a dream in which they have been shot or stabbed in a dream?

Has anyone ever died in a dream?

I have experienced all three and have no idea why. Is it most likely something from my childhood?

[Miri]

Yes, i have experienced these types of dreams. When you dream and try to move but cannot, is common and not abnormal. It is called sleep paralysis dreams.
I once dreamed I was stabbed through the heart. A Jungian dream analyst told me that it meant that there was something that needed to fall away, something that was constricting my emotions. I don't know what to think, but IMO dreams alone should not lead you believe that something happened in your childhood. They can be a vehicle to get you to pay attention to something, but really, are so hard to make meaning of, in and of themselves. The content can be very upsetting, I know, it happens to me a lot, but still, I rarely feel any direct connection between dream images and waking life. If you truly feel concerned about your past, then therapy is the best place to explore that, I think. I also think that if a dream has a message for you and you don't get it, it will come back to you in another form. Truth always wants to be known.

[leahcim]

Thank you miri for such a detailed, intelligent and infomative answer to my dream question. Much appreciated.

I've never had a sleep paralysis dreams, but I have had dreams where I've been killed, others where I've been nearly killed, as well as dreams of being stalked and molested. Mostly though nightmares that involve killing I usually watch other people getting killed though.

As for the "if it's based on your childhood" part, I use a scale on how realistic the dream is as an indicator. A dream feels real while you are dreaming, because while you are asleep, a dream is your reality. But after you wake up...and think about it for awhile, was the dream compatible with reality? Was the setting someplace you know from somewhere...even if it's from something fictional like movie or TV? Or is just a warped mash-up of places that you've been? Did the dream "flow" like it does in life, or did time setting, etc, jump all over the place? Just some of the things I use. Often the dream itself is not a memory, but when you break it down into fragments the information they hold is useful.

[witchy]

I used to have two different recurring dreams when I was a little girl. One when I was simply walking somewhere while not actually moving forward. The other was me running away from a faceless man dressed in all black with a black hat. I would run to my uncles front door to safety, but when he opened the door, there was like a force field preventing me from entering the living room. To me that is not sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is when I wake up fully concious and aware of my surroundings and of the fact that I am awake yet at the same time unable to move my body, speak, or open my eyes. Like my body refuses to acknowledge the fact that I am ready to wake. It is very scary. The only way to come out of that for me is to force myself to try to scream. This usually works. It is freaky, because I want to immediatley go back to sleep, but If I don't stay awake for at least 30 minutes, it keeps happening.

[HelgaDE]

I had a dream a couple of times some time ago where I was unconscious in my dreams and I wasn't able to move or speak. I would try to scream as loud as I can but nobody wasn't able to hear me. The first time was pretty scary but I manage to handle it better on the second time. I had dreams where I was stabbed and even killed for that matter. it honestly didn't effect me and I didn't wake up screaming my lungs off.

[Waterfalling]

I've had sleep paralysis dreams too. also death quite often means a change in your life.

[(JD)]

The dreaming being talked about here (in general) is common. Think about what you are doing in the dream and compare it to your real life.

Dreams of being chased, or running away... usually means you feel you need or want to get away from something IRL, or that someone or something is "after" you or begging or expecting/waiting for you to do something ...

Recurring dreams, imo, are important in that the brain uses dreaming to try and process and file memories. Once you begin to focus on that dream, and what it might be telling you, see if something in that dreams changes... it usually does... as the brain continues to process the data.

As for them being something from childhood, could be. However, don't become too involved in worrying over what it might be. Remember, as children many things in the world were exciting or overwhelming, and often misunderstood by our developing psyche. That means that a memory then, not stored adequately and continuing to produce itself today, may be over something very easily understood today but not when a child.

Yet, yes, dreaming is also a way for the brain to show us, as we are ready to see, memories from the past that we never worked through. IDK if anyone truly knows how this function protects us, but indeed it is as though it (the brain) won't allow us to dream what we aren't ready to handle, or it doesn't allow us to remember it once we dream it... unless we're ready to begin to process it.

Sorry, I've rambled.

[(JD)]

Dreams of stabbing or killing, whether you or another, can often be interpreted as something you used to have or do being stopped. Often your creative side is portrayed as the opposite sex. If you stopped some creative aspect of you after you were married, that would add to why you might dream such a thing "against" your spouse.

If you have such dreams, try to see what it is about you that you have lost, or you feel someone or something has "killed" in you or ended. It might be worth regaining.

[Angua]

Originally Posted by leahcim

Has anyone ever had a dream in which they are trying to get away from something or someone and feel they cannot move?

Has anyone had a dream in which they have been shot or stabbed in a dream?

Has anyone ever died in a dream?

I've had many dreams in which I can't move, or I'm moving too slowly, to get away from something. I suffered an abusive childhood and I would just freeze up in terror, so I think these dreams relate to that, like a deer in the headlights.

I've been stabbed in a dream, but never shot. It was a dark alley and a man stepped up behind me and dug a knife between my ribs. That's all I remember of that dream.

I've died in thousands of dreams. Too many to count...sometimes because I wanted to die, sometimes because I was killed.

[leahcim]

I'd like to thank everyone who's replied thus far and hereafter.

There's one more that I've had hundreds of times and forgot to mention. I'm usually by my car, or a car that's not mine, in a place I do not know. It's usually daylight and I have know idea where I am or which way to go. It's the same type of frustration I feel in the dreams where I can't move. One therapist told me that "lost" in a dream means that I feel lost in life, which I do.