My main recurrent dream is of falling or diving from a precipitous height down a very steep cliff or slope. I wonder if it reflects all those years in university when I was competing for the diving team and spent hours each day falling fast and with a variable level of control. From a symbolic perspective, it could mean a fall from grace, and coming-down in some way, a loss of control. But these ideas are speculative. I prefer to spend time with the dreams themselves and their unique details – to open up to the dream so the felt sense it brings can unfold.
When someone brings me a recurring dream, I always ask not for general themes but the most recent or representative dream of its type. Recurrent dreams are important to pay attention to. They reflect more disturbed dreaming and I believe, represent themes or issues that are unresolved in some way. The classic version is the recurring nightmare after a trauma that has not been fully metabolized. There is a continuum of increasing severity and clinical concern that Domhoff (1993) identified as: repetition of dream elements, repetition of specific themes, exact repetition of dream content, repeated dream that resembles a trauma and repeated dream that replicates a trauma exactly. The research suggests that recurrent dreams coincide with decreased well-being, and that a positive shift often coincides with the cessation of such dreams.
Most adults have at least one recurring dream in their repertoire. I have been asked about these often lately (hence this blog post). A recent study by Schredl and colleagues (2022) reports that most recurrent dreams are negatively-toned, and the most common themes are ‘failure or helplessness’ and ‘being chased’. Interestingly, this supports my contention that dreams reflect the state of the nervous system – these themes could be seen as reflecting the classic immobility and the fight/flight responses to threat. Schredl wrote, “Overall, recurrent dreams seem to reflect waking life.”
However, for those who wake up many mornings feeling the aftermath of a dream depicting the same familiar challenge or fear, such generalizations are not helpful. In working with such dreams, I ask for details and particulars, and also how the dream situation feels to the dreamer. For example, Patty always had dreams of being trapped in a building, a kind of labyrinth, always being pursued and a sense she would be kidnapped. We entered this dream in her imagination, and she could see, to her surprise, that her pursuers were family members. She reflected that she was often the problem-solver and the emotional ballast for her family and this was a heavy burden. She spoke about setting better limits, making some changes, and as she did so, these dreams began to shift and fade.
Another dreamer I’ll call John always dreamt of being in a minefield, or a spy-like scenario where he had to go through all kinds of intricate traps and obstacles, and was always terrified of making a wrong move and detonating an explosion. These dream situations were like being Indiana Jones on a mission, but without the lightness. In feeling into a particular minefield dream, I asked John to notice the specific emotional flavour the dream brought, and wondered if it felt familiar. It quickly dawned on him that this was exactly what it felt like growing up with a narcissistic father prone to explosions of rage. Indeed, it felt like home was a minefield where it was easy to randomly put a foot wrong. He also reflected on his current relational patterns, and sensed into times with his partner that he felt he was walking on eggshells.
Understanding the possible source of such dreams brings some immediate relief, but insight doesn’t necessarily put an end to them. I have noticed that working through the challenging feelings they represent and then making life changes to address these dynamics is the most effective way to put recurrent dreams to rest – if that’s what’s desired. In my case, the falling dreams usually turn into something more fun than perilous: I am suddenly skiing with great skill, or can fly. Schredl noted that about 25% of recurrent dreams are positive: social, sexual, pleasant, interactive.
For those who have recurrent dreams of the unpleasant or downright terrifying variety, you might want to pause and consider what they could be about. I believe dreams reflect deep emotional processing, and if they repeat, there may be something that needs daytime attention. The further toward the severe end of Domhoff’s continuum (ie. replicative nightmares), the more the dreams are of clinical concern. The good news is that if the dreams and the life situations they reflect are worked with and metabolized, the more likely it is that the unwanted dreams will show up less often, and may even stop altogether.
References
Domhoff, G. W. (1993). The repetition of dreams and dream elements: a possible clue to the function of dreaming. In A. Moffitt, M. Kramer, & R. Hoffmann (Eds.), The functions of dreaming (pp. 293-320). SUNY Press.
Schredl, M., Germann, L., & Rauthmann, J. (2022). Recurrent Dream Themes: Frequency, Emotional Tone, and Associated Factors. Dreaming, OnlineFirst, 1