Hi,
Can anyone shed light on why my husband is having bad dreams night after night after night? He hasn't slept properly now for days because he has to get up for a couple of hours at least each night to break the cycle. He goes to bed and falls asleep quite readily and then the dreams start. They seem to be a variety of topics but always seem to end with him being lost and on his own.
Many thanks,
Curity
In Chinese medicine, sleep that is disturbed by strong dreams is brought about when there is too much "heat" in the body that affects one of the functions of the Heart (not the physical heart, but the aspect of regulation of emotion). Heat can arise in several ways; the usual one is a deficiency of Yin, which then fails to regulate Yang allowing a relative growth of heat, usually at night. This is likely to be coupled with slight palpitation, thirst and red cheek bones, and often is made worse by overwork and anxiety. Yin deficiency is brought about by long hours of overwork, anxiety and stress, and in women, blood loss, hence the heating up in the menopause.
Heat also arises when there is an excess of Yang, even when Yin remains intact. There might be profuse sweating, a red face (as opposed to just the cheeks), a tendency to anger, probable headaches and maybe some dizziness. Excess Yang is worsened by alcohol, coffee, spicy foods, and by too much activity in the evening.
It might be likely that there is some emotional component too; fear, anxiety and anger can all contribute to disturbing the Heart, and as sleep is ruled by the Heart in Chinese thinking, sleep problems can result.
Eating too late can also heat the body up, as we tend to warm up when we digest food.
Hi,
Can anyone shed light on why my husband is having bad dreams night after night after night? He hasn't slept properly now for days because he has to get up for a couple of hours at least each night to break the cycle. He goes to bed and falls asleep quite readily and then the dreams start. They seem to be a variety of topics but always seem to end with him being lost and on his own.
Many thanks,
Curity
Soul loss. Possibly intrusions as well, but the aspect of being "lost and on his own" suggests soul loss.
Thank you for your replies.
Hi Crowan - Can you please tell me a little more about Soul Loss. I've never heard of it before.
Thanks.
Curity
Dreams tend to represent symbolically those of our daytime emotions which have not been fully acknowledged/expressed during the day. If your husband is quite a reserved person and does not share his feeling easily, then if something worried or upset him this is likely to show up in dreams in an exaggerated form. E.g. I used to have a difficulty with acknowledging anger, and if someone or something did make me angry during the day, I would tend not to show it, but then have really violent dreams.
The theme of being lost and on his own may suggest that there is some underlying anxiety about being "lost" (this could be metaphorical rather than literal) - you could possibly gently encourage him to talk about things that are bothering him - if these feelings are acknowledged and validated, they are less likely to translate into scary dreams.
Masha
Thank you for your replies.
Hi Crowan - Can you please tell me a little more about Soul Loss. I've never heard of it before.
Thanks.
Curity
When something goes wrong – physically, mentally, emotionally – there is always a spiritual aspect to the condition. So the shamanic practitioner consults his/her spirit helpers as to what can be done to mend the situation.
Often the illness turns out to be caused by one of two things. Either something is missing that should be part of us or something is in us that should not be there. Of course, these two often go together.
The person may have part missing. This could be either a part of his/her soul or the energy that is needed to be healthy. Maybe what is missing is power – your own primal energy, lost over months or maybe years of being ground down by work, family or neighbours. A common symptom of this ‘power loss’ is when nothing goes right. You know the type of situation – the main wage earner in the household is made redundant, the dog dies, you lose your purse with this week’s housekeeping in it ... or worse. This run of bad luck continues and eventually you become ill. You have lost your energy, literally. The shaman can find your power for you and return it, often in the form of an animal.
Or, often, what is missing is soul. In our culture we tend to say a ‘soul-part’ is missing. More shamanic cultures tend to say that ‘one of the person’s souls’ is missing. Often the soul part has been lost due to some trauma - indeed you sometimes hear someone say "I have never felt complete since...". The shaman will seek out and return the soul part, restoring the loss.
And if our power or a part of our soul has got lost, this leaves a space. Other things can find their way in and get stuck - like a spider in the bath, or a stone in your shoe. Not evil, or even bad, but not in the right place. In shamanic terms this is called an intrusion. The shaman's job is to remove the intrusion (a process known as 'extraction') and return it to where it should be. Both retrievals and extractions are ways of re-balancing you.
Hi Curity,
I'm responding because the same thing has been happening to me for three months now. For me the dreams are culminating into something, but I don't know exactly what that something is yet.
For me, I suspect it's the residuals over an entire lifetime that are coming to the surface to be purged. Because the dreams are so ominous and so intense, my worst fears about what may happen in life definitely come to the forefront - it's kind of hard to relax and have faith in the process, but that's what I'm resolved to do.
A couple of questions I have with respect to your husband are, first are there any changes in his health? Co-inciding with my sudden dream activity, I suddenly, out of nowhere it seems, developed a sensitivy to chemicals and electromagnetic radiation. I'm still making adustments in my lifestyle and environment as a result of this.
My second question is, is there some kind of decision he's struggling with, that for some reason, he hasn't told you about?
Anything else you can think of that's different day to day with him?
Maybe some more insights will pop up if the story has a chance to unfold a bit in a post.
Also, I'm posting late. I'd be interested in knowing if the dreams have cleared up or if anything has arisen since then.
Hope all is well.
Hello Fellas! 🙂
Bad dreams or nightmare is occurring during rapid eye movement sleep that results in feeling of terror. I believe this happening because people working through traumatic events. Repeated nightmares on the other hand is specifically as a series of nightmare with a recurring theme. Nightmares are often associated with outside stressors or exist alongside another mental disorder. Maybe a trauma or anxiety happened before. Well, at least that is the explanation in the book. But, for me, a dream a something message from nowhere or a sign or something. 😉