I’m currently in my 8th month of pregnancy, and over the past 3 weeks nightmares have increased 10 fold.   I’ve always been a vivid dreamer (I don’t understand those who say we don’t dream in color - I certainly do), but during pregnancy I’ve had some of my most vivid dreams.  Actual nightmares have always been pretty rare for me, maybe 2-3 night terrors in a year, sometimes less.  But not anymore, unfortunately.  Along with the increase of vivid dreams have come the increase of vivid nightmares.

What I’ve come to term as “pregnancy” dreams started innocently enough around my 3rd month.  In the first dream I remember, I was at the hospital, bleeding every where and running up and down the halls in a panic.  Being only 3 months pregnant at the time in my dream, this was very frightening.  The nurses didn’t seem to want to listen to me - I was simply given a gown and told to go back to my room and the doctor will be in shortly for the delivery.  All I could do was repeat over and over “You don’t understand!  I’m only 3 months pregnant!”.  Later, in the hospital bed, the doctor came in, looked at his watch and said “I have a round of golf, so hold off for a few hours - but I’ll be back later and we’ll start the delivery.”   I started screaming at him that he didn’t understand that I was only 3 months pregnant.  We can’t do it this early!   Nothing I said got through to him.  I was treated like I was a child, as if I knew nothing.   Thankfully, I woke up before the delivery.

A few weeks later I dreamed that I had given birth to 13 children at one time.  We didn’t know about the other 12 babies because they had been hiding behind Little Jack in the ultrasound!  I remember being so scared in the dream, as well as exhausted.  All we had time for was feeding the babies, over and over, and I remember crying throughout the whole dream in misery - and my greatest misery was the fact that I could not breast feed all of my babies since there were so many.  The only highlight of the dream was that we actually did have names for all 13 babies.  The names were vivid to me after waking up, and I wished I would have written them down - I don’t remember them now.

I also remember having a dream (right after my first pre-natal appointment) that I was holding a little girl baby and she was talking to me.  I took that to mean maybe I was having a girl - until we learned the baby was a boy!

Those were the beginning of  “the dreams.”

This past month, the dreams have come on very strong and I’ve actually woken myself up in terror many times, crying aloud, breathing hard, or trembling.  A few days ago I had a vivid dreams about 3 snakes (one a pit viper) that were trying to attack my dad and me at my (late) Granny’s old home.  I woke up crying aloud, enough to wake my husband.  I laid there for a few moments in that half-dream, half-awake stage and our dog Pup Pup (who sleeps in the room with us) moved on the bed and hit my foot and that scared me so much I felt like my heart was about to explode (my hubby felt like his heart was about to explode from the scream I let out).

Some dreams are more cartoony, yet frightning, nonetheless.  For instance, I dreamed the other day I was Wilma Flintstone - but we were living in a “Jetson’s” type of world.  It even turned into a nightmare.  

Now, might I ask, who in the world dreams that they are Wilma??  The dreams are getting so bad that sometimes I’m afraid to even go to sleep.  I’ve never experienced anything like this!

This morning I woke up again with yet another terrible nightmare, although this one quickly vanished from waking memory.  The same thing occured with Pup Pup as well - he made a noise by hitting the window blind beside the bed right after I woke up scared, and I screamed, terrified.

After this morning’s episode, my husband and I were discussing it all and we were both worried. 

So…. I’ve been doing research for the past hour on pregnancy dreams and have learned that it is very, very common for dreams to increase during pregnancy - especially nightmares.  Hormonal changes, bodily changes, and hidden fears manifest themselves in our dream life.   Subconcious fears and worries a first time mom has, even things she doesn’t realize she fears, begin to work themselves out in our dream world.  Apparantly I’m more scared about this huge change in life than even I’m able to admit to myself.  Here is a what MedicineNet.com had to say about the subject…

Nightmares During Pregnancy

Nightmares, about labor and delivery as well as the baby and motherhood, are also common, as fears and anxieties are echoed in dreams.  “There is a lot of concern during pregnancy, especially with a new mom,” says Garfield. “This concern expresses itself in fearful dreams.”

For instance, a woman may dream she drops her baby, or she may dream that she is holding her baby and the baby comes apart, explains Garfield.  “These dreams reflect anxiety related to whether or not a mother can handle a new baby,” says Garfield. “Even if a woman is happy, pregnancy can stir a sense of uncertainty.”

While these dreams are normal, for many women, they can understandably cause worry.

“Warnings that come in dreams should be taken seriously — not literally,” says Muller. “But I think it’s worth mentioning anxiety dreams, which in general are normal, to your doctor. Experienced doctors know to listen to pregnant women, who know what’s going on with their bodies, sometimes in an uncanny way.”

Some websites I’ve googled on this subject say it’s not uncommon for a pregnant woman to dream that she’s giving birth to a non-human entity.  Thankfully I have not encountered this yet.   Many other articles talk about how many of the dreams of pregnant women focus upon things to do with labor, delivery, and being a mother.  The rise in dreams of this nature begin in full earnest in the 3rd trimester.  Unfortunately, 99%of my dreams seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with the baby.  I don’t believe I’ve had a dream about Little Jack since the time I dreamed about giving birth to 13 babies.

Another interesting tidbit I read had to do with why pregnancy dreams seem to be more vivid and easier to recall during waking hours.  During pregnancy, especially during the later trimester, a women is more likely to wake up during REM sleep due to the baby kicking or a sudden need to go to the bathroom (*raises hand* Amen!).  According to a dream article by Jasmine Star, “The vivid dreams people remember and talk about are REM dreams. These types of dreams occur almost continuously during each REM period. People also dream while they are in NREM sleep. These dreams are typically less frequent and not easily remembered like REM dreams. When we dream in REM sleep our dreams are like a story and are more visual, vivid, and emotional than NREM.”

All of this information is great, but nothing suggests any ways of completely tempering and avoiding the nightmares outside of trying to reduce physical stress we may be having in our waking lives.  Relaxing techniques such as listening to quiet music, reading a good book, discussing motherhood fears with your husband (or a doctor or best friend), and pampering yourself with massages were suggested as ways of reducing waking stress, which may reduce the vivid dreams. 

But unfortunately, for the most part, it seems that most pregnancy-induced nightmares are reported to be a larger result of subconcious fears, and not simply a result of waking stress.  I guess I will probably just have to learn to live with the dreams until the baby is born.  Thankfully, I can relax somewhat in knowing that I’m not alone in this and that it is fairly common for many pregnant women to have a high increase of vivid nightmares.

I don’t like it though.  It’s feels silly to wake up screaming due to your dog touching your foot! 

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