Читать книгу Understanding Dreams: What they are and how to interpret them - Nerys Dee - Страница 32

Falling through space is a sensation we often experience soon after ‘falling asleep’ or ‘dropping off’ to sleep. It is thought to be the feeling of transition from the awake state to that of sleep. The feeling of unexpectedly stepping off a kerb followed by waking abruptly is a similar light, or early, sleep experience. Again, this is not a dream but is due to the sudden contraction of the muscles in our arms and, in particular, our legs. This is known as a ‘myoclonic jerk’, and a spasm of this nature is precisely what does occur should we inadvertently step off a kerb. Not surprisingly, our unconscious associates this with the real thing and so incorporates it into a dream event, so that it seems that we are, for example, falling through space or dropping down a well.

There are also ‘falling’ dreams which occur long after we have fallen asleep. Our dreaming mind creates these for a purpose. Not surprisingly, they offer a message telling us that we fear we are ‘falling from grace’, ‘being dropped’, ‘will fall upon hard times’ or have to go through an ordeal that will ‘bring us down’. There is an old wives tale associated with this dream which says that if you reach the bottom you will die. This is not true. Many have landed safely but we do usually wake up before we get there.