When Dreams Turn Into Nightmares

At Dulles Airport that fateful morning, air-traffic-controller Danielle O'Brien guided the routine take-off of American Airlines flight 77. An hour later, she watched it -- as a blip on her radar screen -- speed toward the White House, veer, and slam into the Pentagon.

"I've sat up straight in bed many times, reliving it, re-seeing it, re-hearing it," she told a TV reporter in the days following Sept 11.

But eventually, O'Brien's recurring nightmare was transformed, says Deidre Barrett, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. "In the magic fantasy world of dreams, she reaches into the radar screen to stop the flight, to stop the plane. She holds the plane in her hands -- and that prevents the tragedy."

After the Dust Settled

We've all had unpleasant dreams: You're naked at the mall or unprepared for a big test at school.

But in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, people all over New York City reported especially disturbing dreams -- true nightmares, says Barrett, author of the book, Trauma and Dreams.

"Those who escaped the trauma found themselves reliving actual events -- going down a stairwell, choking from smoke, seeing bodies falling and buildings come down, running," she tells WebMD. "But some dreams went one step further. In their dreams, their worst fears came true."

An example: One man who worked one of the lowest floors got out early, but didn't know the fate of his wife, who worked on a higher floor. Later that day, he found her and she was fine. "But in his dream, he saw his wife's body at the bottom of the staircase," says Barrett.

These reactions mirror what Barrett discovered in Kuwait, when interviewing people after the Gulf War, as part of her ongoing research into nightmares. It's a phenomenon found around the world, she says -- among Vietnam war veterans and in cases of domestic violence.

"The dream may be very true-to-life, but it is changed a bit to include your worst fear," she says.

One Kuwaiti woman dreamed that Iraqi soldiers had broken into her house. In reality, that had happened -- the man held a gun to each kid's head, threatened to shoot them, but didn't. "But in her nightmares, he did shoot each of the children," says Barrett. "It was a recurring nightmare for her."

The Purpose of Nightmares

What purpose do such dreams serve? Why does our subconscious re-enact -- time and again -- horrific events we wish to forget? Why do we have nightmares at all?

One-time nightmares are likely delivering a message, says Barrett. "The more vivid a dream is, the more important it tends to be, whether unpleasant or pleasant. So explore them as you would any dream -- how they relate to your life, what message they may have for you personally."