Nightmares in pregnancy

[anne1140]

Anyone else deal with these? Every night, it seems, I have really vivid nightmares. Most are about murder and violence. I've read that this can mean you're worried about becoming a mother or your pregnancy, but most examples of dreams actually related to something happening to the baby, which has not been the case with me. Almost all of my dreams have involved loved ones or random people. They can be very violent and graphic. Even when they are not about murder, it's still something horrible. For instance, two nights ago, I dreamt my DH cheated on me with a friend. I'm sure we've all had these dreams, but this one was so real and graphic, it seriously made me upset for most of the day! 

Ugh, any tips on lessening these things? I had vivid dreams as a child, but all's been fine until now.

[Lauren82]

Hi,

I had nightmares really bad during the first trimester, nearly every night! I am now 17 weeks and I still get them, but not nearly as frequently. I have had some so bad that I was depressed and sad for the rest of the day too. I'm not sure what helps. I try to go to bed thinking about nice things but that doesn't seem to do much.

[lillymonster]

I don't know how to help....I had a dream a few nights ago that my husband was actually like a Dexter. I don't even watch that show, but my DH was dexter in real life. And it was horrible, although I saw nothing, it was just the whole point. I also had a few other really really bad dreams. And a few really scary dreams too.  I wish I knew how to make them stop.

[StoriesInTheSoil]

I've suddenly started having weird or bad dreams in the past week or two.  Some of them are really awful and some are just strange.  I'm 40w3d though so I was hoping it was a sign of impending labor :P

[3xMama]

I had terribly vivid dreams for nearly a month. Luckily most of them weren't nightmares, they were just strange. I don't even really remember them now. I just remember that they were strange and seemed to last all night. I rarely got good sleep because the stupid things would wake me up over and over again. Its slowed down some now. I still dream nearly every night, but its not as vivd and its not keeping me awake. Basically, the only thing I know to help them stop is time.

If you are intrested in dream decoding, you can get dream dictionaries (library or online) and look up some of the recurrent themes, items and symbols. It may not be something related to pregnancy, necessarily.

One dream tip: When I was a child, I had a recurring nightmare for several months. My mother finally told me that whenever I started to have the dream, I should imagine our dog and have her chase the bad dream away. It worked wonders for me then and I still use the same tactic now when I can't get a bad dream out of my head. I also will snuggle close to DH and focus on his breathing to help me calm down and think about nice things. I do sometimes have to discuss dreams so that they don't bother me all day. Ususally its the ones that are graphic like that that I absolutely have to discuss practically first thing in the morning so I don't spend all day thinking about it.

HTH and those nightmares go away for ya!!