12


I’m Stuck in Muck

“I’m trapped in a room with no windows as it begins to fill with water.”

—Olivia, 15

If you dream about being lost, feeling desperate as you try to find your way out of a dangerous city area, a forest, or a maze-like building, you will probably wake up feeling extremely frustrated. Some dreamers tell me about being buried alive, being caught in a web, or locked in a cage.

Many dreamers speak of escaping some evil thing in pursuit, while their legs feel as heavy as if they are trying to run through water, mud, or wet cement. Occasionally, you may dream that you are unable to move, feeling paralyzed, perhaps unable to scream or even breathe. A few people awaken still feeling trapped in their bodies, a condition called “sleep paralysis.”

As you get older, you are trying to find your way to becoming an adult. However different our goals may be, we all struggle to find our way in life. From time to time we get confused, puzzled, and unsure of which way to turn. That’s why so many kids dream about being lost or trapped. They have nightmares of being lost or trapped at exactly the same rate as adults do (58 percent), which shows that grown-ups get confused, too.


To be lost or trapped in a dream is to
feel confused or conflicted in waking life.

Lost and Found

If you dream that you are lost, you are probably feeling confused about what to do in some waking situation. You might be puzzled about your math assignment or mystified why some former friend is no longer speaking to you, or maybe you just don’t know what to do about an unpleasant situation in your home.

Ask yourself the following questions to help you solve your puzzle:

  1. Where was I trying to go? Home? School? Music Lesson? Work?

  2. Where did I get lost?

  3. What got me off the path?

  4. What did I do in the dream to help myself find the way?

  5. What feels confusing in my waking life at the moment?

Your goal in the dream – home, school, or some other place – gives you a clue to the meaning of your dream. The place you are trying to reach in a dream of being lost represents the goal that is hard to grasp.

One girl had recurrent dreams about getting lost on the way to her piano teacher. She felt guilty for not practicing enough and was reluctant to go. At the same time, she wanted to develop her skill at the piano, a goal that eluded her in the dream world as well as in the waking one. Another girl had been forced to transfer from one high school to another during her junior year because her parents moved to a different area. She never felt at home in the new school. It was hard to make friends and fit in with classmates who had been together for years. In addition, her parents’ marriage became troubled. She often dreamed of getting lost trying to find her old high school. It was more than the former school she wanted. Her desire was to recapture the feeling of security and peace she had in that former time.

Sometimes kids are just lost, with no particular goal other than to get out:

If you dream about being lost in a house or building with endless hallways, doors that open to more halls, places that seem to lead nowhere, you’ll feel as if you’re inside a maze with no exit. These dreams suggest a more general confusion and uncertainty than those dreams where you are headed home or some other specific place. You might feel that you are making no progress in solving a waking problem.

Many dreams of being lost take place in darkness. Perhaps you dream of being lost in dangerous dark city streets, or on country roads with no streetlights or guideposts, or in the desert at night. These dark conditions represent the difficulty you have in seeing the way clearly in the waking situation that puzzles you.

Caught in a Trap

You will often feel worse in dreams about being trapped than in those of being lost. Your space and your possibilities of escape are more restricted:

Places of entrapment, like places where dreamers are lost, are often dark. Inside a closet, under the earth, inside a sinking ship – the blackness of these spots may stand for a “black” mood as well as how hard it is to see your way. When you are trapped in a dream, you are probably experiencing a dilemma about something in your waking life. Where you are trapped often tells you something about the area of waking life in which you feel stuck.

Your reaction in a dream of being trapped is important. One girl dreamed “I am trapped on a ship with other people. I try to find them, but I can’t because the ship starts to sink. Water is crashing everywhere.” Her dream might have been about an overwhelming family situation that was getting worse. It might have been a school situation that she felt unable to survive. Whatever the case, the fact that she tried to find other people is a good sign. Although it failed in this dream, she made an effort and could perhaps succeed in future dreams or waking situations.

Even better is the response of the girl who dreamed “I am trapped underwater, but I have an oxygen tank.” She, too, was in an overwhelming situation, but had supplied herself in the dream with the means of survival. She was feeling more hopeful about her ability to cope with her waking-life problem.

In her dream at the beginning of this chapter, Olivia feels hopeless as well as trapped and terrified. She described no attempt to escape. Yet many kids who dream they are trapped in water make the marvelous discovery that they are able to breathe underwater. Their fear pushes them to discover inner strength to survive.

If you dream about being trapped, try to escape. Your struggle to cope with the elements in the nightmare will give you greater ability to cope with the waking situation your dream represents. Trying to save yourself and others, getting rescued, or finding you have equipment or magical powers that can help you is far better than giving up.

Trapped in Your Body

The most unpleasant form the nightmare of being trapped takes is that of being partially or totally paralyzed:

Slow Motion Running

You may share with many dreamers the peculiar sensation of running in slow motion as you try to escape in a dream. Researchers think this strange feeling comes from the fact that dreamers are usually unable to move their large muscles while dreaming. A special body mechanism turns on to protect the dreamer from acting out dreams. When this mechanism does not work, people walk in their sleep. So if you feel as if you are running through water, or thick mud, or wet cement, it’s actually normal. When you have to force yourself to make strenuous efforts to move your legs as you escape a dream villain, it’s your body’s way of protecting you from starting to run in your sleep.

These dreams suggest that the dreamer feels, for the moment, totally unable to cope with the waking situation that entraps them. If you cannot run in a dream, you feel unable to get away from the waking-life difficulty. If you cannot speak or scream in the dream, you feel unable to get help while awake. If you can’t breathe in the dream, you may feel your life is at risk. If you feel heavy-legged in the dream, you feel weighted down by the waking situation.

Sleep Paralysis

The dreadful feeling of being paralyzed may persist when you wake up. This condition is called sleep paralysis, and it can terrify the person who experiences it. Awake, eyes open, yet unable to move or make a sound, people feel as if they are in a trance. Sometimes the dreamer can see the figure of an animal or a dangerous person in the room, at the foot of the bed or on his or her chest. People feel as if an evil spell possesses them. In olden times people believed a witch called a “night hag” caused the sensation of weight or pressure on the chest.

One boy dreamed “A dark dog/creature is sitting on my chest about to bite off my face.” He struggles to throw it off, to find it turns into his younger brother; they fight and the dreamer is killed. A young woman dreamed that a huge boulder was pressing down on her and other people. Another spoke of getting heavier and heavier, sinking through the bed. These dreams are typical of the feelings of sleep paralysis.

Sleep specialists tell us that this condition is caused by a malfunction of the nervous system, in which the mind wakes up before the body does. When a person has sleep paralysis, that mechanism that stops your large muscles from moving while you are asleep is still active, rather than turning off as it usually does. Researchers say the condition can be brought on by a meal of heavy carbohydrates.

If you have an episode of sleep paralysis, stay calm. The condition always passes, usually in a few minutes. Fright can prolong it. Remind yourself that it will go away soon. Try wiggling small parts of your body, such as your toes and fingers. Move your eyes in different directions; they are not affected. Breathe evenly and deeply. Soon you’ll be able to move normally. If the sleep paralysis was brought on by eating carbohydrates like pizza, pasta, cookies, coke, and cake, you’ll want to make more careful food choices.

At times the cause of the sensation of pressure on the chest is ill health. An eight-year-old boy with pneumonia dreamed that a man was standing on his chest holding the whole world. Other people with chest infections or conditions that cause breathing problems have similar dreams. But unless you have a serious chest infection or health condition, or feel pain during your dream, a dream about a weight on the chest or of suffocating probably symbolizes feeling trapped in some waking situation.

Getting Out, Getting Home

A woman who dreamed of being shackled at her wrists and ankles struggled violently to get loose without success. Suddenly she discovered that if she relaxed, she could simply slip free. It was her tension that kept her imprisoned. A man who dreamed of being stuck inside a wall was unable to fight his way through. He realized his efforts were futile, so he relaxed and waited it out until the dream ended. And remember that we can escape from dreams of being trapped in water by discovering underwater breathing.

How can you free yourself from the thing that ensnares you in a dream? Will you find a tool in your back pocket? A key the jailer left behind? Go over your dream, adding the things you need to make it better. If you dream you are caught in branches, nets, ropes, or chains, or are totally paralyzed, try to break loose. Make efforts to move. If your legs feel like lead, see if you can fly; it’s sometimes easier. If you can’t move your whole body, attempt to move your fingers, toes, or eyes. Send a mental message for help to some rescuer. Or simply relax and wait for it to pass.

When you have a dream of being lost, you feel you have gone astray in waking life. Remind yourself that you can bring what you need into the dream. To be lost is to imply the possibility of rediscovering yourself. Is there a map in your dream pocket? Do you suddenly find a flashlight? A compass? Follow different paths, marking those you have already tried. You might be able to help yourself or get help in bad dreams. You have more power in dreams than you know. Use it.

If you find yourself lost or trapped in a dream, try the above techniques. When you succeed, you are helping to free yourself from the past that has bound you or puzzled you. You can break the spell, find your way, and become free to be yourself.