Dreams Of Death

I am having recurring dreams of suffering from a severe illness that often is or could result in my death. This is happening probably once every week or two, and I have never had these dreams before. They also sometimes cause me to awake in the middle of the night in an anxious state of hypochondria. The dreams have sometimes been extremely vivid, and sometimes they correlate to subtle body sensations I have experienced in my waking life. Here are some examples, but there are more:

1- One day, I had a mild twitch of my hand and my body jerked briefly as I went to sleep. I thought very little of it, and I assumed it was probably normal and I think it was. Then, in the night I had a dream that I was in an art museum with my family. Then, suddenly I began having full blown grand mal seizures. I had to be rushed to the hospital immediately. I remembered commenting in the dream about how I had the seizures before, but that I brushed them off as my hands twitching a little :holyshit: This dream was exceptionally vivid, and I awoke at 5:30 AM fearing that the dream may have been my subconscious' way of telling me I was having seizures in the night. I researched seizures, and I couldn't necessarily find that the things I experienced were really symptoms of it.

2- Another night, I had a dream that I was experiencing sudden and total failure of my liver. I had to go to the hospital immediately for a transplant. I was developing jaundice in this dream. I awoke concerned that this could be the case, because I had drank alcohol and took catnip (the two do not really interact, but I became concerned that maybe I was having an isolated and fatal reaction to the combination). Again, the dream was very vivid and I feared the dream was my mind's way of telling me that I was having sudden liver failure. I even checked my eyes in the mirror for jaundice. At first, I actually was not sure if I had it or not. Then, I looked again in the morning and saw that I didn't.

3- Tonight, I dreamed that I was having an unknown problem with my heart. My heart was beating too quickly and powerfully to sustain itself. This malfunction was essentially similar to a heart attack. My parents were going to take me to the hospital. However, my Dad got ornery about something (which he does sometimes, but I doubt he would in that kind of situation). I said to him, "Look, these could be my last 20 minutes or so with you and your going to waste it with this?" He just answered in the ornery way that he can get sometimes in waking life. Then, it was not much longer and I woke up.

4- In one dream, I was suffering from cancer. I went to the doctor and had it officially diagnosed as cancer. I awoke concerned that this may be my unconscious mind's way of telling me I had cancer. The next day, my hemmoroids flared up bad (sorry for being graphic), and I became concerned that I was going to bleed to death and/or that it was actually from a potentially fatal cancer. I began doing extensive research online about colon cancer, and I had myself very concerned. My mother seemed to think this was not a plausible concern, but it did not really put my mind at ease.

My question is, why is it that I keep dreaming of diseases? It's really scaring me. It makes me wonder if it's my mind's way of telling me something. I feel that it is, but I am unsure if it is metaphorical or if my mind is trying to tell me there is something gravely wrong with my body and I do not realize it?

Wow. Sounds like something I could have written, or my type of dreams. I guess our physical health is one big concern. I've went to my doctors and asked about these things. So far no cancer, no diabetes, nothing found. I still need to take a test for fibromylagia. Hopefully it will come out that I am fine and don't have it. The anxiety in the waiting I am sure doesn't help.

Personally I find medical related dreams the scariest, more so than any other nightmares. At least with the monster dreams, you know they are just dreams, and can prove yourself that they were all a dream. Medical dreams, that is a lot harder to prove. The unknown is scary. I'm getting the feeling they are anxiety dreams and my mind's way of getting my attention. It's got my full focus in these situations vs, the monsters, that I dismiss as soon as I wake up or change dream scenes.

Still in the back of my head thinks what if.... I am trying to pull myself away from worrying about my health in my waking life.

Yeah, for sure. Disease dreams are some scary stuff. I guess maybe it just means that I'm a bit of a hypochondriac. Of course, a lot of people are.