At other times, pregnancy dreams take a frightening turn. Mothers-to-be may have nightmares about labor and delivery, or dream that something bad has happened to the baby. A common theme for dreams during pregnancy involves conflict with the father. While pregnancy-themed dreams may be partly due to hormones, similar dreams have also been known to occur after giving birth and in expectant fathers.
Talking through dreams with your partner may help both of you to assimilate your changing roles. Pregnancy can be a time of great joy and anticipation as you prepare to welcome your new baby. Mothers-to-be who report feeling more anxious or depressed during the day are more likely to experience bad dreams.
Similarly, research consistently finds that first-time mothers tend to have more pregnancy-related dreams than those who have already had children. Some studies have found that pregnant women with complications such as preeclampsia also report a higher incidence of disturbed dreaming. Toward the end of the third trimester, these dreams subsided and were replaced with dreams about the childbirth itself. All of these findings support the idea that dreams parallel the real-life fears that arise as your pregnancy progresses.
Daytime fatigue is a commonly cited reason for the uptick in dreams during pregnancy. It seems logical that women who are tired will nap more, leading to more opportunities for dreaming. However, pregnancy causes profound changes to our nighttime sleep, as well. As we sleep, we progress through various sleep stages.
Dreaming tends to occur during rapid eye movement REM sleep, at the end of each sleep cycle. During a regular night, we may experience four or five episodes of REM sleep, but we often forget our dreams by the time we wake up several hours later.
By contrast, for many women, pregnancy-related discomfort causes fragmented sleep with multiple nighttime awakenings. Interestingly, these disruptions may actually cause pregnant women to get less REM sleep overall. However, people are usually more likely to remember their dreams if they wake up in the middle of a dream cycle, making it appear that pregnant women have more dreams.
Changing hormones may also be to thank for altered sleep patterns during pregnancy. Not only do hormones cause a roller-coaster ride of emotions during the day, but some researchers also theorize that the increase in vivid, detailed dreams may be linked with higher levels of progesterone that arise in late pregnancy.
In most cases, vivid dreams during pregnancy are a normal and healthy way to process emotions. In fact, several studies have found that mothers who had more masochistic dreams during pregnancy show higher levels of depressive symptoms during pregnancy, but go on to have shorter labors and a lower risk of postpartum depression.
Improving the quality of your sleep and reducing nighttime awakenings may help cut down on vivid dreams. Try following pregnancy sleeping tips such as sleeping on your left side and avoiding liquids before bed to reduce disruptions to your sleep.
Keeping a dream journal may help you decipher thought patterns and prevent nighttime worries from keeping you awake, You can also reach out to your support system or try meditation, yoga, or other prenatal courses. Feeling more secure and confident about your pregnancy can help you relax at night so you can get better sleep. That said, in certain cases, your dreams might be trying to tell you something.
How pregnant you are in the dream also matters , she adds. Much like late-stage pregnancy dreams can signal change on the horizon, dreams about giving birth can be a sign that something new is coming to life, says Loewenberg. Maybe you completed an important project or finally got your degree — whatever it is, dreaming about having a baby signifies that something notable and important has come to fruition.
If you are currently pregnant , it's also common to dream about pregnancy or impending birth — in fact, in a study of 88 pregnant people published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine , about one-third of them had dreams about pregnancy, birth, or childrearing. These dreams can take the form of nightmares about something going wrong with the pregnancy or birth.
However, this isn't to say all dreams you have while pregnant are just cut-and-dry anxiety nightmares — some might have more complex symbolic meaning. After all, one of the most common pregnancy nightmares involves passing away — of the self, the baby, or a loved one, Loewenberg tells Bustle. To dream that you or someone else bleeds while having a miscarriage means a loss of power. Perhaps you are going to be demoted at work. Maybe you are simply tired of all the pressures life brings. You could be emotionally drained.
Perhaps you are having a tough time with your partner and this is taking a toll on your health. If you are passing a blood clot, something that has happened recently has exhausted you and you need a vacation. To see that you have a blood clot can have a couple of different meanings. Perhaps you are faced with a difficult decision in your waking life and are unable to decide what to do. You could feel a loss of power. Maybe your children are growing up and are wanting to do their own thing and you feel unable to control this situation.
A blood clot can also suggest disappointment. You could be disappointed in yourself for not getting that promotion. Seeing yourself bleed in a dream can indicate that you are in a fight with a friend or a family member. The dream is telling you that you should try and put this confrontation to rest. On the other hand, if you dream that you are able to stop the blood, it is a positive sign.
You are filled with energy and enthusiasm and anything you tackle now has a good chance of success. Ancient dream dictionaries have their own interpretation of this dream, If you see your sister having a miscarriage, it really has nothing to do with her. It is all to do with your health, especially if your sister has a miscarriage in the dream, but she is not pregnant in waking life.
It is a warning to take more care of yourself. Perhaps you should go and see your doctor and get a full medical check. You need to stop this downward slope into ill health and despair. Modern interpretations of this dream are connected to your sister. If you see her having a miscarriage in your dream it can mean that she is going to go through major changes in her life.
Perhaps she is getting married and will be starting a new chapter in her life. You could have a dream where you see yourself having a miscarriage and then being unable to cope with the emotions this brings. This is not a surprising dream as it is very traumatic to have a miscarriage. If you find yourself in this position in your dream, you are going to experience great changes in the near future.
Sometimes they are a breath of fresh air. Whichever it is, however, the changes will have a big impact on you. The dream is telling you to be prepared for what life throws at you. Perhaps you hate change, but you have to accept that it is part of life. You have to try and be a stronger person. If you feel unable to make big changes, start small. You have to move on in life as nothing stays the same however much you want it to.
It could be said that most dreams about miscarriages are nightmares especially if you are pregnant. The nightmare can be terrifying and you will probably wake up in a cold sweat.
Perhaps there was something preying on your mind when you went to sleep. If you dream about both a violent act and a miscarriage, it can be doubly worrying and terrifying. Perhaps you were physically attacked in your dream and this led to a miscarriage. Perhaps you are supposed to be getting married. Maybe you were planning to change jobs. Perhaps you have big ideas and want to start your own business. The violence you dream about represents the area of your life that will not turn out well.
Maybe these plans will work out okay in the beginning, but not in the long term. It is time to sit down and consider whether it is worth starting something that you may not be able to finish. The dream is a post-traumatic stress disorder nightmare. It could be that you are in emotional pain, rather than in physical.
If you are the one acting violently in the dream and causing a miscarriage, you could be suffering from anxiety in your waking life.
In addition, Domar says, cognitive behavioral therapy CBT can be helpful. By identifying and reframing unhelpful thoughts, accepting your feelings of loss, and finding ways to reengage in activities that bring you joy and a sense of meaning, you can use CBT to come to terms with the emotional pain of losing a pregnancy. After all, they went into the pregnancy experience together, so an early pregnancy loss can cause some degree of distress for both partners.
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