Weirdest, nastiest night’s sleep in my life... so what did it mean?

“I WOULDN’T be writing about your nightmares if I was you,” my husband observed when I stated my intention to “unpack” the contents of the single weirdest, nastiest night’s sleep I’d had in my life.

Every time I woke that long and awful night, I seemed to plunge back into sleep and straight into either the same nightmare or a new, worse one.

“Other people’s dreams are so boring,” he said.

“You probably ate cheese or something before you went to bed. Or you ate your dinner too late.”

“Thanks,” I said.

I had not eaten cheese, chocolate or a heavy meal before bed. I don’t take drugs and I hadn’t been drinking alcohol. This could mean, I observed, that the cavalcade of nightmares which came galloping at me out of the blue, might be interesting to some people. In fact, I added, if somebody had useful insights to pass on to me, I’d be grateful. It was a very peculiar experience which seemed to mirror every insecurity and worry I’d ever had.

Nightmares, as even a quick google shows, are often a reflection of our worries and anxieties. Research shows, I explained, that women have more nightmares than men, something which, it is believed, could be linked to findings that women have more issues with anxiety than men.

He sighed.

“Very justifiable anxieties,” I said sharply.

So, anyway. That night. The highlights. The curtains open on me sitting in a car being driven by somebody else. The car is small and being driven at enormous speed. I am in the passenger seat and feeling extremely frightened. The person in the driving seat has the pedal pushed to the metal and we are careering along the streets of an unfamiliar town.

I sense that I know the driver but I can’t see the face, only the barest outline of a profile mostly concealed by a waterfall of hair. The car, I realise, is completely out of control. 

It lurches sideways, mounts a pavement, then lurches back into the road. I have to do something. 

It is an electric car or a hybrid or something. I see a power button. I press it. The car immediately slows down. I open my door and fling myself from the barely moving vehicle onto the pavement. I wake up.

Phew, I thought, and went downstairs to make a cup of tea. I put a bit of honey into it for good measure. I came back to bed, drank the tea and went, quite unusually for me, straight back to sleep.

The second dream. Here, I am scared and hurrying through an unknown town at night. A very athletic man, who resembles the serial killer from The Fall, is following me. He is dressed head to toe in dark, closely-fitting sporting gear. I start to run. He chases me. On one side, the footpath is lined with tall metal doors.

I know I have to get to one specific door and type a code into a keypad. I find the door and with trembling fingers try to key in the code. I keep having to press the buttons again because my fingers are shaking so much. It finally opens, I jump in and slam it hard, just as my would-be assailant throws his entire bodyweight against it. The door shakes, but holds firm. I woke up trembling. Dear God, I thought.

Third dream. I am in a workplace which was busy with people who as yet have luckily failed to notice that I am not wearing all my clothes. I know that my missing garments are hanging on the back of the door in the Ladies Room a short way down the corridor. I inch my way there, slip in the door and wake again only to descend into a fourth dream. 

This one I can’t remember.

Later that week, I looked up the interpretations given for my dreams on a number of different websites. Here goes:

Dream No.1: The Out of Control Car. This dream could mean that I felt an overpowering need to wrest back control over something. Or it reflects a fear that I am on the wrong track and need to get back on the correct road.

Dream No. 2: The Dark Predator: This dream could mean I am running away from something in the past that is still causing me fear, or from a person I have been trying to avoid.

It may reflect the fact that I have been hurt in some way by somebody I know, or that I have been placed in peril by someone who has already tried to harm me in some way.

It could also mean that I am undergoing a significant change.

The dream of being chased can also signify a sense of helplessness and lack of control or a subconscious fear that may have arisen from a traumatic experience.

It may also reflect a feeling of a general anxiety and stress,

Dream No. 3: The Missing Clothes: This may mean that I feel uncertainty about an issue, an awareness that I have been wrongly accused of something or that I feel guilty about something.

Out of interest, the most common nightmares adults have involve being chased, teeth falling out, catching fire, getting shot, dreaming about a storm, drowning, being attacked, experiencing an infestation of insects, being naked in public, getting lost, feeling trapped or being late for something important.

There are various interpretations provided for each of these, but there’s also a belief that if you have an instinct about what your dream really mean, it’s a good idea to take that into account.

And there you have it.