4 Consecutive Troubling Dreams about my Daughter - Help

I came across your website in the hope of finding a form of meaning for the multiple troubling dreams I am having of my 5 (almost 6) year old Daughter.

This is a frequent occurrence however has been nightly for the past 4 nights and leaves me extremely frightened. I have woken from these dreams at the same time every night (4.15am) and a few moments after I wake up, my daughter starts crying or calling for me.

The following starts from oldest to newest.

1) my dream started when my partner and I took our daughter out and it was lovely. We were walking over a bridge of which became a small canal boat docking port. My partner got on the boat first and I passed our daughter to him however he dropped her into the water. I jumped in the water after her but couldn't get to her as I was held back by an unseen force and was forced to watch her drown.

2) We (my daughter, my mum and I) were at some form of large shipping dock. The type that has large rocks at the shore where boats are anchored. There was something going on of which left other people (all unfamiliar) to be scared. For safety the 3 of us climbed down and were hiding amongst the rock. The dream shifted to us being in the water. I had my daughter but could not keep her head above water. There was a water boy but I couldn't get a grip good enough to hold us up. My mum however was treading water whilst I was struggling and my daughter drowned and I gave up and followed shortly after.

3) this dream was unusual as the majority of my nightmare have, what can be described as realistic and tangible as far as place. We (my partner, daughter and I) were in some form of a loft. There were unseen entities (ghosts and demons) of which was made obvious to me. The next thing we knew there was exceptional gusts of winds so strong that I was holding onto a banister with my daughter and our bodies were lifted trying to get us off (like the scene with the children and the closet from the film poltergeist). My partner could not hold on to anything in time but managed to grab my leg. My grip was slipping trying to hold everyone so I had to kick him off in order to keep holding our daughter safely to me. The dream woke me then.

4) my dream started with my mum and I in a strange house. Looking out the window we were in a location with a lot of land but another house in view. My daughter was playing outside with the children from the other house. I heard the other children being called into their house for dinner. I went to look out the window to check where my daughter was and noticed a tall man with dark features staring at my Daughter. I ran down the stairs in time to scream her name but at the same time this man had a rock of which he hit her over the head which resulted in her being unconscious. My scream startled him back a little and I picked up the rock in defence and gathered my Daughter. I managed to hit him multiple times with the rock of which I felt he allowed and ran to the house carrying my daughter. The entrance into the house was suddenly blocked by an old sofa and he caught up to us and struck me on the head which left me dazed. He took my daughter from my arms and started walking away. I managed to get up and chase but he threw her over the fence into a stream. The feeling I got was if he couldn't have her then neither could I. I followed her by jumping in the stream. I tried to catch up to her but a water fall was ahead. We both went over but whilst falling I saw myself as heavily pregnant. On impact with the water below I felt that at the same time I found my daughter face down in the water I knew I had lost her and my unborn child. I woke up then.

All of these are really upsetting. I wake up in a hot sweat and in complete panic, sadness and loss. I am always unable to return to sleep. I am not religious however find that I send a silent prayer to God to always keep her healthy and safe. They are very disturbing for me and I find it hard to shake the feeling throughout the day. I am exhausted from restless sleep. I have a sleeping condition called restless legs syndrome which leaves me with little rested sleep in normal circumstances. I can't shake the feeling of foreboding.

My Daughter is my world to me and I am very protective of her. The feelings these dream invoke in me leave me feeling helpless to protect her as her mother.

I hope someone is able to help me and decipher these as it would really put my mind at rest as I am concerned I am frequently dreaming about the loss (in some form) of my daughter. Please help.

Those sound like horrible dreams. I'm not an expert on dream interpretation but I will try to help. You said the dreams leave you feeling helpless and that when you wake up you hear your daughter crying or calling for you. Perhaps her crying and calling for you makes you scared and caused the nightmares to happen. I know that if i heard someone crying/calling me at night i would probably be scared too. Why does she cry and call for you at night? If she's afraid of the dark, monsters or has a scary dream you can comfort her and spend some time with her till she feels better. We've all been in that spot before when we were kids. But if your child is having night terrors and they occur repeatedly, according to a article I read on the website KidsHealth," you might have to ask your doctor whether a referral to a sleep specialist is needed." If you don't know what a night terror is you can look it up on a search engine.

How old is your daughter?

First let me reassure you of several things. First, and you probably understand this already, but it can help to hear it from somebody else - dreams are not literal. They're symbolic. Death in a dream does not literally mean someone will die. Your dreaming mind just comes up with symbols to represent your thoughts and fears. Death frequently represents a transition from one stage of life to another, or some similar kind of change. Parents, especially mothers, frequently dream of losing their children simply because eventually they will no longer be your children and you can't get away from that fact. They will grow up, and even before they do, they sometimes go out into the world (to school or to friends' houses, whatever) and you're not always able to protect her as much as you wish you could. This is the second thing I want to reassure you about - that these kind of dreams are very common and represent very normal parental fears and anxieties. You want to be able to completely protect her, but in reality that of course isn't possible. And that quite understandably causes a great deal of fear and anxiety.

And the third thing - the fact that frequently you wake up to hear her calling or crying. I know this can make it seem as if something paranormal is happening - as if you're both dreaming the same thing or somehow sensing each other's thoughts and fears. But there are very prosaic and ordinary reasons it could be happening - the first one that comes to mind (aside from what DawnEye already said) being that it's quite likely you're crying out in your sleep or making some kind of terrified noise that wakes her, and she understands that you're afraid and experiencing something terrible, so that frightens her. She might not know what's waking her - if you hear a nose in your seep that wakes you often you don't know what woke you, but if it was a loved one's voice filled with anxiety and terror, that understandably will make you afraid. I think this is probably what wakes her in fear. Your dreams sound like what are called anxiety nightmares, which as the name implies, happen when you're filled with anxiety. It causes terrible dreams from which you wake with a start and often an audible gasp or even short little scream or verbal noise of some kind. The other possibility that occurs to me is that she could also be experiencing anxiety dreams and waking frequently in terror just like you are. If you're experiencing this level of anxiety in your dreams, then it's also there wen you're awake, though you might keep it under wraps fairly well then. But trust me, a daughter will know if her mother is filled with terror or anxiety, and it will fill her with it as well. Just as you know when she's afraid and it makes you afraid too. So she might well be picking up your anxiety and having the same kind of troubled, frequently interrupted sleep you are.

And finally I want to explain that water in dreams can represent the unconscious, overwhelming emotions (essentially the same thing as the unconscious really), or just simply the unknown.So your daughter repeatedly being lost and drowned in water sounds like it represents your fears of losing her to the big bad world that you can't control. The great mysteries of life that lie ahead for her as she grows up, for which you can at least prepare her even if you can't always be there to protect her.