I recently entered my third trimester and I am tired again.  All.  the.  time.  Everyone is telling me to enjoy a catnap, but I’m not a very good napper; I feel like it is time wasted and I feel guilty when I wake up.  I probably need to talk to a shrink about that!  Anyway, lately, I am at least trying to get to bed earlier and sleep for eight hours.  When I am lucky enough to sleep really well, really hard, I have the most BIZARRE dreams!  I woke up so disturbed this morning, that I needed to figure out what my dreams meant.

Dreams are an important part of our sleep health.  We enter the dream state (also known as R.E.M., Rapid Eye Movement) every 90 minutes over the course of a night.  Every cycle of dreaming grows in duration throughout the night.  The first dream may only be 3 minutes and the last dream you have, provided that you’ve had a good 7-8 hours of sleep, could last 45 minutes.  Remembering and interpreting our dreams can help us address subconscious stressors and unravel hidden health clues.  Our body is talking to us, and if we listen, we can improve our overall health.

To better remember your dreams:

• Don’t move a muscle upon waking.  Keep your eyes closed and ask yourself, “What was I doing?  Who was there?  Where was I?”
• Take vitamin B6; 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 in the evening.  This helps the conversion between tryptophan and seratonin.  The increase in seratonin aids in the increase of vivd dreams, which are easier to recall.

To decipher your dreams:

• Visit www.dreammoods.com and try looking up your dream in their dream dictionary.  It’s pretty thorough!
• If you want to get deep, read Dream On It, by Lauri Quinn Loewenberg.  This book has been recommended by Dr. Oz.

Okay, okay, I will tell you about my weird reoccurring dream:  a cat (sometimes my childhood pet, Daisy, sometimes not) is attacking me, scratching, biting, and I can’t seem to escape or fight it off, although I try.

What Dream Moods has to say about this: “To see a cat in your dream symbolizes an independent spirit, feminine sexuality, creativity, and power. It also represents misfortune and bad luck. The dream symbol has different significance depending on whether you are a cat lover or not. The cat could indicate that someone is being deceitful or treacherous toward you. If the cat is aggressive, then it suggests that you are having problems with the feminine aspect of yourself. If you are afraid of the cat in your dream, then it suggests that you are fearful of the feminine. The dream may be a metaphor for “cattiness” or someone who is “catty” and malicious.  To dream that a cat is biting you symbolizes the devouring female.  Perhaps you are taking and taking without giving.  You may be expressing some fear or frustration especially when something is not going as planned.  To dream a cat is scratching you suggests that you are feeling threatened.” 

Whoa.  Heavy.  Maybe I do need to see a shrink!  🙂

Also, here are five of the most common stress-induced dreams and what they mean.  I used to have the locker one all the time!

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