Dreams regarding physical health.
(This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical care.)
Through dreams, we can boost our physical health in many ways: we can receive guidance toward a health-promoting lifestyle (and warnings against destructive habits), diagnose illness and injury, maintain our emotional vigor during physical crises, get recommendations for treatments, and learn about our progress toward recovery. We might even receive the healing itself during a dream.
We can receive advice during a dream. Dream researcher William C. Dement was a smoker until he experienced a disturbing dream in which he underwent medical tests which indicated that he had lung cancer. After that dream, he quit smoking. When he returned to the habit two years later, another dream convinced him to stop again. A different person was told (by dream doctors) to apply heat to an aching back muscle; when this remedy was used during wakefulness, it was effective.
We can receive a diagnosis through a dream. Hippocrates and Aristotle said that dreams can reveal our illnesses, and ancient Chinese doctors would refer to a chapter on the diagnostic capabilities of these "prodromic" dreams in their text, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. Medical information can come to us in dreams even before we exhibit symptoms, because the body and mind are aware of disturbances which might be too subtle to be detected by a medical exam or our wakeful awareness; this data allows us to seek early treatment, with clues about the nature of the ailment (e.g., the type of disorder, its location on the body, its severity, and its cause). Doctors and other medical professionals can assist in this process, by asking about our dreams and becoming familiar with the symbolism which might reveal a problem. Because dreams generally have an emotional component, we also discover our feelings about the affliction.
The symbols of infirmity. There are no standard symbols for physical distress; any symbol could represent either a physiological or emotional condition (or a problem in a relationship or another aspect of life), so we need to study the symbol more carefully -- its context and its emotional associations. Although we develop our own symbols, some people find that the human body is frequently represented by a car or house or machine, or by the dream-person's body itself; thus, for instance, if the car is malfunctioning, or involved in an collision, this might be an indication that the body is experiencing trouble. Illness might also be depicted by such symbols as warfare, rotten meat, afflicted plants or animals, unpleasant bodily sensations (hot, chilling, or painful), or an unusual depiction or usage of a body part. The symbols could be as blatant as a doctor, a hospital, or an ailing person (or a literal replay of an accident which caused the ailment). Symbols can indicate the severity of the problem: a harsher affliction might be indicated by images which are more turbulent and emotional. They might also indicate a reaction to therapy or medication. However, the medication might create another problem: some drugs disrupt REM sleep, so we will experience no dreams during this period.
Dreams of death. As stated previously, any dream can be interpreted on a physiological or emotional (or other) level; a dream of death might refer to the "death" of a component of our life -- for example, the end of a relationship (or perhaps the destruction of a tumor). Many people, during periods of physical health, have experienced dreams with possible symbols of death (corpses, graves, funerals, leaving on a trip, etc.) -- but the people lived to tell about them. But researchers have discovered that these "death dreams" tend to become more frequent when life is endangered; people who have these dreams might be more likely to worsen or even die -- but other people who have the dreams recover. (Some of the most seriously ill patients report no dreams at all; perhaps this is partially due to medication which is inadvertently suppressing REM.) If you have a dream which contains images of death, don't assume that your life will end soon (even if you are ailing); the dream is a speculation on a possibility, and it might not refer to physical health at all.
Dreams of healing. After the crisis has passed, we will notice a change in our dream symbolism. The nightmares will diminish, and a new series of dreams will give us hope, with images of healthy people and animals and plants, buildings being constructed, a well-tuned car -- or "to see the sun, moon, heavens and stars clear and bright" (in the words of Hippocrates).
Healing during dreams. Dreams can be more than reflections of our physical condition; they also present an opportunity to improve it. The chapter on dream incubation describes the healing temples of Aesculapius, in which participants would receive cures; we can incubate our own requests for medical help and advice. In modern times, dreamers have received health information (and healings) from images of angels, doctors, Jesus, or other individuals; certain Native American tribes honored dreams in which remedies were suggested by an animal such as a snake. And in lucid dreams, people have improved their health by invoking those healers or by directing a visible healing energy toward the part of their dream body which corresponds to the afflicted part of their physical body.
Dreamwork for physical health. During this time, dreamwork can help us to manage the emotions and stress generated by the crisis. Refer to the chapter on dreamwork.