'Lions and tigers and bears – oh my!'

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Who can forget the terror wrought by the Wicked Witch in “The Wizard of Oz” when she cackled, “I’ll get you my pretty – and your little dog, too!” And, “Going so soon? I wouldn’t hear of it.”

Lately, I’m feeling a lot like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” – trapped in nightmares that I’m unable to wrest myself out of. Perhaps you are too.

Nightmares are described as messages from our subconscious that we’re feeling anxiety and stress in our everyday life. And, nightmares can also follow the sequence of a real-life trauma we’ve gone through that’s still affecting us.

Of course, we’re all in this together. But my anxiety, stress, and trauma are not the same as your anxiety, stress, and trauma. And when we finally close our eyes at night, our personal projector flips on, and our own scary movies come to life behind our eyes. And all of us are far, far away from “home.”

That’s because during the day we’re forced to live with unpredictability, uncertainty, and risk. We’re uneasy and out of balance because, like Dorothy, we seem to have no control of our lives right now.

We’re certainly trying to do our part by being socially responsible, by staying home as much as possible, and caring about more than just ourselves. Even the thought of “reopening” isn’t as comforting as we hoped it would be – because the numbers keep going up.

And, all this trauma acts as a trigger to any past trauma we’ve lived through. So not only are we receiving messages from our subconscious about the anxiety and stress we face now, these messages are smacking up against anxiety and stress we faced in the past.

According to Dr. Deirdre Barrett (Ha! No relation, unfortunately.), a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, “frequent disturbing dreams are described as a “hallmark” of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

So how can we make it down the yellow brick road not in fear, terror, or distress, but rested, refreshed, and ready to take on another day by the time we wake up and we’re back “home”?

Dr. Barrett recommends attempting to “program” our dreams as we fall asleep. We should repeat to ourselves what we want to dream about as we drift off to sleep.

Christina Pierpaoli Parker, a behavioral sleep researcher, suggests that to sleep better every night we should try:

Waking up at the same time every day.

Doing everything we can to stay active during the day.

Using our bed for sleep, sex and rest (if ill) only.

Taking a bath before bedtime and avoiding devices.

What works for a friend of mine when she’s awakened at night and can’t get back to sleep is reciting over and over the old childhood ditty: Hush, little baby, don’t say a word, mama’s going to buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don’t sing, mama’s going to buy you a diamond ring…

Here’s what I think we could do when our quest for a restful night is disrupted by nightmares: Click our heels together three times (lying in bed, of course) and say, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”

Until next time … keep thinking the good thoughts.