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Vivid dreams during pregnancy

Vivid pregnancy dreams explained, pregnant dream meaning suggestions plus advice on coping with nightmares


Discuss vivid dreams during pregnancy on our forums, right now! Or, post a comment below.

Throughout pregnancy many women experience highly vivid dreams on a nightly basis. These tend to be remembered in more detail and feel more lucid than previous dream experiences and while some are just plain strange, others can be frightening nightmares.

However, before you start to worry about the meaning of your dreams you should remember that there is little evidence to suggest that their content predict or symbolise real world events in any way. Instead they are more likely to be a mechanism used by your brain to process thoughts and emotions experienced during the day whilst your body is resting and not taking on any new information.

The enhanced vividity of the dreams experienced during pregnancy is thought to be due to a combination of several factors.

Firstly, pregnancy is a time of great change both physically and emotionally. This is likely to be reflected in your dreams as your mind assimilates new feelings and experiences into it's existing bank of knowledge during the night. On this basis many believe that symbols present in dreams can be interpreted to show your underlying thoughts and emotions.

Secondly, the increased presence of the hormones progesterone and oestrogen are thought to impact the way you sleep during pregnancy. We tend to sleep in cycles made up of REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) phases. These cycles tend to last approximately 90 minutes so if you take the recommended 8 hours sleep a night, you are likely to experience 4 or 5 REM cycles.

REM usually accounts for about 20% of the time we spend asleep and although it is believed that dreams can occur at any time during the sleep cycle, REM dreams seem to be more detailed and most easily remembered. This is thought to be because REM is the stage of sleep where brain process are most similar to those that occur when we are awake. Increased levels of oestrogen are thought to result in elongated phases of REM and therefore may help to explain the enhanced quality and recall of dreams experienced during pregnancy.

Finally, it is likely that as a result of the frequent night wakening and the generally poorer quality of sleep experienced during pregnancy, vivid dreams may simply be a result of fully waking during an REM phase of your sleep cycle and consequently result in an enhanced recollection of your dream.

Talking your dreams through with your partner or with friends can alleviate any worries you have about their content and help to put them into perspective. However, if you ever feel that your dreams become a problem or consistently prevent you from sleeping, you should discuss this with your health care professional.

Your Comments

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I was pregnant a few years ago. I was happy that i fell pregnant as I didn't think that I could. During the first few weeks i had a dream that i went to have a scan check and the doctor said to me that there was no baby inside. I woke up sweating and immediately i remember thinking, please don't take my baby. I grabbed my stomach and went back to sleep.

A few weeks later i started bleeding, i went into hospital and they explained that things looked okay but i would need to go for a scan. I went for a scan a week later and exacetly how i dreamed it prior was how it came to life, except the person was not a man but a women telling me that there was no bby in my stomach.

Apparently my baby stopped growing but the sack continued to grow. It was devastating at the time but i got over it.

2 Years later and i am now pregnant again with my First Child. I am more open to what is happening and actually listening to my dreams more. Already a week ago i had a dream which was very real to reality.
I believe that pregnancy helps women beome more intune with themselves and the planet.
Though I am quiet a mystic anbd do believe in these things i don expect others too.
Buit this was just my experience
added by dianel [Wed 2nd Sep 2009 @ 10:34:19]
phew, thought i was going mad! Had a couple of dreams about being in relationships with celebs, the 1st being daniel craig which i can understand but the other is the funny little guy from deuce bigalow the male jigalow, very very odd!!
added by beaniebaby [Mon 24th Aug 2009 @ 09:15:06]
I keep on having strange dreams that i am getting punched in the stomach by someone, im terrified i am actually punching myself whilst i am dreaming, anyone else get this
added by thomson2609 [Mon 8th Jun 2009 @ 09:43:41]
I am 10-11 weeks pregnant. Before I was even Pregnant I had two dreams that I was pregnant with a girl...in the dream I am always in a hospital and the baby is coming, I need a doctor and medication, no one is listening to me, everyone walks by like im not there, the baby is still coming, and i dont know what to do. In both dreams something bad happens and the baby died.

Last night I had a dream that I was in the hospital, I was having my baby, ther were family and nurses all around, the nurse checked me and said that it would be awhile before the birthing process would start so everyone starting leaving the room, I could tell that the babu was coming. I could feel her head and I was trying to yell for people to come back but no one believed mke and they just kept going, i ended up delivering the baby myself, I pulled the head out and then the shoulders and then the baby...it was so vivid and real I even saw the placenta and the umbilical cord. I held the baby in my arms to make sure she was ok, there is still no one in the room. She wasnt crying, and I kept thinking I need a suction thingy to clean out her nose and throat. But I couldnt move. Someone finally came and took the baby from me and then I laid there waiting for someone to stitch me up and bring my baby back, I remember looking all around the room and looking at my legs and the blankets around me and seeing all the blood and stuff. It was so real. It scared me bad.

Now I have realized that in all my dreams that I am having the baby in a hospital and no one sees me or listens to me, no one helps me. Its scaring me because they are reoccurring dreams and I have had premonition dreams before. I think I am just freaking myself out and im hoping they are just normal dreams for a second pregnancy. I dont know if anyone is even reading this, but I had to at least write it down. I dont have anyone that I can talk to like that, so writing it down helps me get it out. If someone is reading this and has any advice, feel free to write me. Lioness444444@yahoo.com. Im just a pregnant mom trying to get information. And hoepfully these dreams get better!!!!
added by Lioness444 [Tue 14th Apr 2009 @ 12:51:13]
Im almost 22 weeks now... I never used to dream very much. But now that I am pregnant, i dream about every night. Ihave had very strange dreams. From having sex in the middle of a football feild and getting caught by the coach, to my students trying to burn down my house... and then I had really bad one that I was pregnant and I got into a car accident... That was freaky.
added by Brandy3050 [Thu 2nd Apr 2009 @ 09:07:36]
Im 20 weeks goin on 21 wks along..and i only had 2 nightmares and it was both about miscarriages....the first one was i miscarried and it was an ALIEN from the movie ALIEN...and last night dream was that i miscarried and it was a bird...it is really freaking me out....i jus dont understand why i am having bad nightmares...any one have a clue..?
added by asmith688 [Fri 20th Mar 2009 @ 09:12:44]
I am almost 15 wks along, and I continuously have dreams about me saving a boy, like rescuing him, but for some reason when I finally see his face, he's a grown man. I always save him from a car as well. Not from being run over by a car, but I have to open the door and remove him from the car. I've had the exact same dream over and over and have no clue what it means.
added by smileymommy [Thu 11th Dec 2008 @ 09:40:22]
i'm 8 weeks now.. and i always have nightmares that shows my husband having affairs with other girls. i feel insecure.. though i think i can trust my husband not to be doing such things.. i still get paranoid over the dreams.. no nightmares.
added by niSa14 [Wed 3rd Dec 2008 @ 08:02:30]
i keep having a horrible dream, its always the same, im in labour and once the baby is born its premature and is always fighting for its life. this dream is really scaring me. can anyone help me or explain why im having this terrible dream?
added by rachybabe89 [Wed 16th Apr 2008 @ 08:54:32]
i keep on having these nightmares where my sister is always getting hurt or killed its horrible.
added by mitchy [Wed 6th Feb 2008 @ 09:28:00]
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