Why you may have nightmares

A nightmare is a horrific experience, whether it comes in a dream or real-life situations. It is something you would want to avoid, which nevertheless happens to you once in a while. Perhaps, it is not out of place to say that a nightmare is inevitable in life at some point. Some readers who have been asking me about this subject should realise this fact. You cannot run away from nightmares as you would see later in this piece.

The word ‘nightmare’ speaks of a very frightening dream or a terrifying real-life encounter, which leaves one with a feeling of fear, displeasure or misery. In the course of my ministry, I discovered that the traumatic experience of victims of nightmares may linger for a very long time. An extended session of counselling is often required for nightmare victim to restore them to normalcy.

I had reasoned initially that a nightmare was an esoteric subject that might not be relevant to my audience, but I decided to deal with it nevertheless, because almost everyone is a victim in some way. A wild animal pursuing you in your dream could be a spiritual attack. If you are jilted by a lover in a relationship, it could be a nightmarish experience. If you lose a loved one to sudden death, or you lose a fortune in a failed business, in fact, any dramatic change of prospects with negative consequences is a nightmare worth talking about.

The nightmare we are dealing with here is the type that comes to you while asleep. Contrary to what most people think, the Devil is not the only source of nightmares. God may show you something in a bad dream to inform or warn you about an impending occurrence, so that you pray and fast about it. For instance, in the famous Bible story in the Book of Daniel, the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, had bad dreams that troubled him. God showed the king in his nightmare the judgement set before him.

Another famous dream story in the Bible is found in Genesis 41, regarding Pharaoh’s dream. God showed him what was about to happen in Egypt. It was a bad dream of sorts. Sometimes, God talks to us about terrible things in dreams and visions of the night or when we are asleep. If the divine message is a warning about an attack, it could be relayed in a negative prophesy, or a bad dream. What do we do? We pray and ask for divine direction on how to avert such disasters.

When one is on the verge of mental illness, they might have nightmares. If anyone has frequent bad dreams or sees distorted images or hears strange voices, they should hasten to see a psychiatrist. It could be a symptom of mental illness. Those who take hard drugs, smoke weed, or abuse medicaments are likely to have strange dreams as a precursor for full-blown mental illness.

If you indulge in those things, you better stop before it is too late. In fact, excessive consumption of local gin or substances may cause nightmares. You have to kick these bad habits before they consume you. Don’t experiment with narcotics, hemp, drugs, hot drinks and stimulants, they are very dangerous to your health. Young people have a tendency to experiment with dangerous indulgences just to be considered hip; such thinking is foolish. There’s nothing hip about damaging habits. Don’t self-destruct.

If you visit mental institutions, you would be sorry to see famous show business stars, and some celebrities in other fields, who have run amok and are held in chains like wild dogs to keep them at bay. You certainly won’t like to live a sub-human existence like that. I know young people who have gone prematurely to their graves because of crazy indulgences like this.

When your bladder is full of accumulated urine while deeply asleep, the pressure could cause a bad dream to compel you to wake up and go empty your bladder. As soon you do that, you would find that the nightmare does not return. This kind of bad dream occurs purely by the instigation of the body system so that you don’t wet your bed. I have had this experience many times. Nature sometimes induces bad dreams to force you to evacuate urine or respond to some discomfort, like sleeping on your arm.

The most common complaints about nightmares involve spiritual attacks in a dream. There’s no doubt about it, evil forces do attack people in dreams. Where this occurs, you go for special prayers we call “deliverance.” Some ailments could induce bad dreams. Malaria, high fever or brain tumors are known to cause nightmare in victims. Only a proper medical diagnosis can help unravel the facts. Not all bad dreams can, therefore, be attributed to evil spirits.

A nightmare could occur at any time of the day, even when you have a nap in the afternoon. The most common indication of an evil attack is when a wild animal like a snake is pursuing you in a dream. The serpent is the most common medium of satanic attacks. You have to combat it with prayers. Resist the devil, and he’ll flee from you. That’s what the Bible teaches. Never surrender.

Weekend Spice: Imagination is more important than knowledge – Albert Einstein Ok folks, let’s do it again next Friday. Stay motivated.

•Ayodeji is an author, rights activist, pastor and life coach. He can be reached for mentoring and counselling on 09059243004 (SMS and WhatsApp only)