Click here to hear a podcast of this article.

Reoccurring dreams can happen to just about anybody during the sleep cycle. They usually mean that there is something you have not acknowledged yet that is causing some sort of stress or discomfort in your life. What makes some dreams reoccur is when heightened levels of stress arise. These strange dreams come at times of weakness, and they typically occur over a long period of time.

There is a theory that explains reoccurring dreams. The theory is called the Threat Simulation Theory created by Antti Revonsuo. The theory states that the biological function of dreaming is to simulate threatening events and release threatening avoidance behaviors . It has been said that 66 percent of recurring dreams propose at least one threat, and 15 percent of recurrent dreams involve realistic situations.

“The recurring dream was fires. There would be fires breaking out randomly in whatever environment I was in,” stated Mrs. Moore a Triton High anatomy teacher, “this was when I was a kid, like when I was 3 years old I put an aerosol can into the oven while it was on. There was a drawer at the bottom it was like a warming type of oven and I put the aerosol can in it and I shut it. Then it exploded but I didn’t get hurt but I saw it and experienced the explosion and for probably eight years after that I would have dreams about fire. So it could definitely relate to that event.”

It is said that if you dream of a fire it can symbolize destruction, passion, desire, illumination, purification, transformation, enlightenment, or anger. Therefore there may have been some fear or feeling of destruction from fire because of an experience Mrs. Moore had, therefore she had recurring dreams about the event.

“My recurring dream is me running from some sort of evil thing that had just killed my whole entire family and on the right of me is an abyss of whiteness and on the left of me is a abyss of midnight blackness, and yeah it was really scary,”  explained Sarah Long, a Triton senior when asked what her reoccuring dream entailed, “I do believe it has a connection with my past. I’ve struggled with a lot of things growing up and throughout my life. I feel like that’s kinda me running from my problems, and from my own demons. This dream for sure it was one of my biggest fears, I was all alone running from my demons so that’s definitely something I will always remember for the rest of my life. I get these dreams once a month but, I haven’t gotten them in a few months surprisingly. I think im 100 percent overcoming my fears.

Running in dreams symbolizes running away or towards something or someone that the host of the dream is trying to avoid or reach. For instance, one may be chased by something that resembles fear and anxiety, while in some dreams the host may be running to something they want in a pleasant setting.

Reoccurring dreams are something one may never experience, however those that do are left with many questions about how or why they had the dream that they did. The question of how or why people have recurring dreams may never be perfectly answered, although it is beneficial to have a better understanding on the possibilities of reoccurring dreams and how coincidental and relatable they can be to ones life.