How To Keep A Bad Dream From Getting Worse

The convenient thing about the kinds of bad dreams or even nightmares we have about health issues is that it is usually not very hard to remember them. If you have a dream that you are being stabbed in the belly, for example, possibly indicating among many possibilities that you have a blocked artery to your colon, or if you dream about being torched by a flame thrower, possibly indicating (again, among dozens of possibilities) that you are about to break out in shingles, you will probably remember the dream. Chances are that it will be so nasty that you'll wake up, something that makes it easy for the dream to stay with you even later on. The problem is, once you have your bad dream, then what do you do?

Relate Your Dreams to Previous Medical Diagnoses

Personally, I persuaded a cardiologist to admit me to the hospital to make sure my dream of impending doom wasn't going to be realized. It turned that it was, but at least I was in the very best place at the very worst time.

I had enough previously diagnosed cardiovascular issues that it was not difficult to justify putting me in hospital again, and I had the good fortune of going to a hospital where the physicians and staff take hunches, premonitions, and funny feelings seriously. The doctors in this hospital would not even automatically make a referral to psychiatry for report of a "hallucination," as long as they were very sure the patient was in contact with the shared, "real" world and no dangerous decisions would be made.

Don't Catastrophize

Even if you just "know that you know" that you are suffering a dreadful disease revealed to you in a dream, don't call your doctor at home at 3 in the morning to share the news. Seek timely medical attention without screaming at the admissions nurse, barging to the front of the queue at the emergency room, sending out inflammatory emails, or, most importantly, making up symptoms to get medical attention. Trust your dreams to give you timely information that allows your doctors to diagnose you and treat you through an organic, natural, rational process. Dreams are not necessarily rational, but medical treatment should be.

Don't Indulge Your "Fight or Flight" Response

Predictive dreams often activate a region of the brain known as the limbic system. These neurons enable the body to engage in fight or flight behaviors for dealing with imminent danger.

In dreams about health, however, the danger usually is not imminent. It is actually helpful to approach medical personnel calmly and in full control of the ways you express your emotions. Immediately after a predictive dream, while it is still night, it may be helpful to drink of cup of warm tea, do some stretching, crack the window open to let in some fresh air, or simply to sit quietly until agitation passes. Then when you feel calm, in the morning, when medical care providers are also refreshed and alert, then seek the attention your condition may require. If you have physical symptoms, not dream symptoms, then it's appropriate to call for medical care (911 if you are in North America, 999 in much of the rest of the world) right away.

Write Down Your Dream In As Much Detail As You Can

It also helps to record the details of your dream while they are fresh on your mind, because the details will fade away soon enough without this step. It is to be hoped that you don't have predictive dreams about your own health so often that you need to keep a journal at your bedside, but jotting down notes about your dream as soon as you awaken from it will help you understand the dream and act on it later.

Just how much value do doctors put in reports of dreams?

Except in psychiatry, doctors are not trained in interpreting dream symbols. Don't expect an emergency room doctor to indulge your highly metaphorical description of your ailments without earning yourself a referral to the psych department. Interpreting your dream is largely up to you.

Interpreting your labs and diagnostic signs, on the other hand, is up to your doctor. Let your doctor do the job of diagnosis, but use your dreams to get yourself to the right place at the right time. It may even save your life.

Dreams appear to serve the purpose of helping us process things that were either so important that we can't do it all during our waking hours, or to call attention to deep-seated or scary things that we actively try to deny while we're awake. Predictive dreams aren't magic. They simply help you piece together symptoms that you were already experiencing, but tried to dismiss. Dreams can be one of your body's many ways to warn you about something that already exists. So before you go to the doctor with an "I had a dream" story, be honest with yourself about the physical symptoms that have been plaguing you, and tell your doctor about those, too.