I had the strangest nightmare the other day.

Cedric had a nightmare recently.

I dreamed that I was running late for the SAT, and I missed it. I woke up and spent about five minutes laying in bed, trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my future now that I missed the most important test of my junior year of high school.

And then I remembered that I was a junior in high school a very (very) long time ago, and that I already took the SAT, and that I already went to college, but it was very scary at the time.

What counts as a nightmare?

It’s a nightmare if it scares you, plain and simple. There’s no one set of a parameters than makes a dream a bad dream. However, many of us would agree that certain things are nightmarish. People tend to be scared or disgusted by the same things. For example, dreaming a loved one dies is a bad dream. Dreaming an enemy dies may not be one. Dreaming of an infestation of roaches is a nightmare, but a house full of butterflies may not be so bad. Flying is a blissful dream for many…unless you’re afraid of heights.

What may be a nightmare for you may just be a weird dream to someone else. Working with clients over the years has taught me that people who are generally more conservative and rigid in their waking life tend to have more nightmares than people who are more open-minded and curious. Creative people tend to have more scary dreams as well, but they tend to be bothered by them less.

Getting back to my dream, missing the SAT was scary for me personally. I was always afraid of being stuck in the North Country my whole life when I was young and terrified of disappointing my grandfather. I also absolutely hate preparing for something for a long time only to have it not happen.

What causes nightmares?

Nightmares can be caused by many things: being cold, being under stress, being ill, indigestion, sleeping in a strange place, spiritual attack, etc. However, these situations all do one thing: they make you vulnerable and therefore open to psychic suggestion. Your fears are always with you, but you won’t always dream about them. You may not even think about them; you couldn’t if you want to get anything done. However, you still act on your fears and shape your life around them. The universe takes advantage of your vulnerable state and puts your soul squarely in a situation in which you must confront your fear.

I analyzed my dream. I’m not nervous about the SAT in real life. However, the same feeling I had about the SAT is similar to a feeling I had about an upcoming deadline. I’ve never been good at handling the pressure of mounting deadlines, but I’m getting better. I meditated on it, and now I realize that I just need to calm down.

After all, like the SAT, does it really matter any more once you’re passed it?