“Pregnancy dreams are typically connected to something else in your life that is in a growing and development phase,” says Lauri Loewenberg, a professional dream analyst and author. “Plans that are in the works, or maybe a degree that's in the works, that will, when it comes to fruition, result in a new life for you.”
Basically, a dream about any phase of pregnancy means a new side of you or a new part of your life is on the way, and it's up to you—in your waking life—to figure out what that newness could be.
Many women experience more vivid dreams, nightmares, or dreams involving feelings of anxiety while they are pregnant. This can be an early sign of pregnancy, but some women continue to have strange dreams during all three trimesters.
A baby or child in your dream may symbolise a number of qualities we associate with youth, including vibrancy, energy, innocence, trust, purity, imagination, simple joy, spontaneity and open, inquisitive minds.
During REM sleep, their eyes move back and forth just like an adult's eyes. Some scientists even believe that fetuses dream while they're sleeping. Just like babies after birth, they probably dream about what they know: the sensations they feel in the womb.
Children often represent one's inner child in a dream and can have both positive and negative meanings. In a positive sense, they symbolise unrealised potential or need for growth. Dreaming of children might relate to a desire to return to the past to recapture good times or to satisfy unfulfilled hopes.
Unsurprisingly, many pregnant women report pregnancy-related dreams. View Source . They may dream about being pregnant or dream that they are meeting their baby for the first time. Many mothers even dream about the biological sex of the baby.
Often, vivid pregnancy dreams occur during the third or last trimester, when pregnancy hormones are at their highest levels. In the third trimester, many women experience more dreams and the most disturbed sleep patterns. Dreaming occurs during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep.
In the second trimester, dreams start to reflect the changes in the baby and the mother's body.
Pregnancy nightmares are common and usually triggered by the emotions related to this period in your life. For example, if you're anxious about labor and delivery going well, you may have a vivid dream that you have a hard time with childbirth. Changing hormones play a role in this, too.
Usually, pregnancy dreams are not a cause for concern. However, they can be stressful and impact sleep quality and mood. Persistent nightmares can also be a sign of emotional distress, for which a person may want to seek support. This article will look at when pregnancy dreams typically occur and what causes them.
If you always feel panic and dread over the possibility of being pregnant, despite all the steps taken for protection, you may be experiencing Pregnancy Anxiety. It is not the fear of giving birth (which is Tokophobia) but an anxiety over experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.
“Usually baby dreams are a really positive sign that represent growth or development, either with you personally or with something that you're working on,” Loewenberg says. “It's a messge from your subconscious saying this new thing is great, it's time to focus and nurture it. It's time to get busy.”
Have sex regularly. The highest pregnancy rates occur in couples who have sex every day or every other day. Have sex near the time of ovulation. If having sex every day isn't possible — or enjoyable — have sex every 2 to 3 days a week starting soon after the end of your period.
"Sex dreams are a way for your subconscious to unpack everything that's affecting your life, and often, dreams about sex aren't literal. Instead, they could symbolize problems, desires, and hopes in all facets of your life."
One cause is due to an increase in hormone production. You'll find during pregnancy that your hormones may impact your emotions and your anxiety. They will also impact the way your brain processes information and emotions, possibly resulting in more vivid and frequent dreams while you are pregnant.
Waking up Crying From a Dream
The sensations you feel while sleeping and the emotions you experience before bed may cause you to wake up crying. If you wake up crying from a bad dream, that is your body's response to the weight of the suppressed emotion.
When you dream about a woman you've never met, it is usually a reflection of your thoughts and emotions in your waking life. Your dreams reveal the inner world unfamiliar to you – your passion, dreams, desire, needs, and so on.
You're yearning for the past.
On a more fundamental, literal level, Loewenberg says childhood home dreams can also mean we're yearning for the past in one way or another, especially if life has been tough recently.
So, “if you're dreaming about [someone], it's not likely they're dreaming about you as well.” As dreams are all about the self—your feelings and behaviors—if you're dreaming about a specific person in your life, then it's likely there's some aspect of them that is currently at work in your life, Loewenberg explains.
They can feel pain at 22 weeks, and at 26 weeks they can move in response to a hand being rubbed on the mother's belly.
Research has shown that, during pregnancy, your baby feels what you feel—and with the same intensity. That means if you're crying, your baby feels the same emotion, as if it's their own.