Biting on Puzzle Pieces Dreams

[Occipitalred]

Hello, So I always thought this dream would be unique to me but I guess I've been figuring we have a psychology in common. Probably, other people had similar dreams and people can help with interpreting it. This is a recurring dream from my childhood which I grew out of. It would start out peacefully. I would be doing a jigsaw puzzle near a couch. The puzzle was very easy. Like four big pieces. For some reason, I would then bite on a piece. The piece would feel bigger and undefined. It's a weird sensation, not like you are biting on something, but there is something between my teeth that's big and undefined and growing in size. And it makes me panic. I would always wake up from these dreams in great panic. I thought something horrible happened. I would run downstairs to my parents and rant like I am delusional that I did something wrong or forgot something. It was always nothing. Only these dreams induced these panic attacks. It happened to me last in 3rd grade. I woke up from the infirmary and ran around the school wanting to confess something horrible (eating my lunch, which I didn't) until I got to my class and realized everything was OK and relaxed. I've just always been curious about this and even tried to induce it again. I am able to recreate the feeling of eating the puzzle piece but not the panic that accompanies it. I am not able to find this dream with the other recurring dreams that lots of people have but it was so intense I feel like others should have this dream too.

[Superman1]

Maybe that piece is how you fit in, and how scary it is if you feel you don't. And biting it is wanting the fulfilment.

[LighrkVader]

Did you have trouble breathing in these dreams?

[Occipitalred]

Hey, thanks for the reply. Superman1, I never felt the puzzle was so relevant... "fitting in" is not an expression in the language I spoke at the time. Curiously, the puzzle was easy and was not the source of distress. It was putting it in my mouth that caused the distress. (But fitting in would of been something that mattered in my waking life and that did appear a lot in my dreams so good insight for sure) LighrkVader, I don't remember having trouble breathing in these dreams. But the distress came from my mouth for sure... So maybe, without noticing. Maybe it was an oral fixation though I have no idea what that means (and I am very skeptical about a sexual-centric model of development)

[LighrkVader]

Depends how old you were, it could be related to your teeth being funky and sore irl. It made me think of recurring dreams I had as a kic that made me panic completely and sometimes walk around the house hyperventilating in a terrified haze not knowing where I was. There were usually math or logic puzzles. But with an added element of pressure. Like saving a little girl from dying by answering correctly. The pace I had to solve the puzzles in went up to ridiculous speeds implying that they couldn't have been very difficult. I can't remember much, but they were the worst dreams I had and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

[Occipitalred]

I would of been 8 years old the last time. It wasn't my teeth but the space in my mouth. So not my actual body. No pain. But I feel like they would definitely be in the same category as your dreams outside of that. It's really funny that puzzles were both involved and not even difficult.

[Superman1]

Maybe self expression, communicating. It must be what recurred in childhood and scared you which you grew out of. The space between, undefined and growing in size could be your identity at such a young age, or just growing up. But it sounds like just normal childhood fear, like being out of control, or powerlessness.