Can you explain what triggers dreams/nightmares about being attacked (and also mess and clutter)?
I am 78 yrs old and have had recurring dreams such as these for over 20 years and am now seeking some clarification.
Dreaming of being attacked is actually quite common. In some cases, people who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder or some other type of anxiety ailment due to an actual physical attack may dream of being attacked as their psyche still tries to deal with the incident.
More than likely though, a dream of being attacked is generally triggered by the suppression or fear of something going on in your life. While in your dream, you may be attacked by any number of things – a man, a monster, or a wild animal – but, what is actually attacking you is some disturbing area in your life that you may not notice or may think you have under control during waking hours. When we don’t openly acknowledge our fears, they show up in our dreams, where our minds are much freer and open to feelings.
Look at all aspects of your life and try to pinpoint the area of stress. You say you have had this dream off and on for 20 years. Go back 20 years and see what was going on in your life. Did you retire when you were 58? If you did, was it of your own free will or were you forced to due to an illness? Or, had you ever worked outside the home? Maybe you felt guilty and less than useful being a homemaker. It may be that at 58, you were re-examining your youth and realized you missed out on something – getting married, having children, having a career.

Describe your dream and get a personalised interpretation of its symbols and meaning.
Try our Dreamscape Dream Analyser free, here on this site →And, it may be that at 58, you began to realize that your body was getting older and time was no longer on your side. Many of us think when we are young that we will never get old, but in your forties and fifties, you really begin to notice physical and mental changes and realize that age is creeping up on you.
If the anxiety that goes with aging is not dealt with, but only suppressed, what is “attacking” you in your dreams is the fear of getting older and eventually death. The dreams of clutter and mess could be that you feel if you died today, there would be areas that would be left in chaos, where it is something physical like the clutter in your home or mental like having a will or telling people you love them.
If that is the case, you may want to seek counseling. Twenty years is a long time to have reoccurring dreams and it may take a professional to help you deal with the issues. If you cannot afford counseling, talk to family and friends about this anxiety and try to come to terms with it. Meditate on seeking peace with this problem each night before you go to sleep. Recognize the anxiety, but concentrate on not allowing it to creep into your dreams anymore.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
attacking me. In one of my dreams, I had an anxiety attack so bad that I was shaking when I woke up.
When I close my eyes at night even for one second I just image a figure attacking me. I feel like everyone is after me. A lot of people have been attacking me in real life too. I can't sleep at night because I am afraid that won't wake up. I really hate that feeling.
Out socialising with a friend then a random drunk man approaches me for a cigarette, before I say yes he just throws himself onto me which at first felt like a mugging but then became apparent he is intoxicated. This same man then continues to re appear like 3/4 times harassing and attacking me and even throwing stuff at me which I felt the impact from off my head, No one helps but I manage to escape him and then I’m at home. The dream gets weirder at home. I’m suddenly walking down the stairs from being upstairs and find the front door open, I shut it too and as I inspected the rest of the house downstairs I can see from the kitchen the back door is open too which scares me, I’m thinking is this man in the house. I struggle to use my phone as tho I’ve got no signal. And this is the twist. My attention suddenly goes towards the bathroom and I can see the floor is covered in water. I enter to find the bath full with a dark purple coloured water and as I get closer I can see the outline of a body submerged. I grabbed the shoulders pulled up the body and it was my sister, She younger than me but the image in my head I can still picture it was a younger version of herself. her eyes were dark purple like the water very scary but then I realised she was okay and breathing, shouted at her as I thought she was dead and then I woke up. Any clue to the message of this disturbing dream please?
I woke up to actually crying out in my bed here in sarasota Florida.
As I woke up I wanted to snuggle with Steve for comfort...I went to roll over to do that and he wasn’t here
What is the meaning of this?
Also have dreams where cars/trucks are chasing me at my home in the mountains. They are bouncing around and jumping fences climbing the side of the mountains on our property but I do go out there to chase them off and fight back to protect our animals?
Am I going nuts??
But about 7 months ago I was rear ended on the interstate have a lot of injuries from the accident and still currently fighting insurance and employer to get the care I need. Just trying to make sense thanks if you can offer any insight.
i tried running but my legs kept giving out so it was hard for me to keep going but once i got to my house there was this creepy demon thing in the window and my door was stuck and i couldn’t open it
all of a sudden the door flies open and i got inside, i then woke up..
the second dream i had when i fell back asleep, was me and a few other people from theater were in my front yard and there were these random people trying to attack us...
so when they were attacking us basically they had like chain saws and knives and stuff but the random people snatched michael and then curtis got away, i never saw him later in my dream.
but the dude trying to attack ME had a chainsaw, i tried to run away but my legs were slowing down so at the end i just laid down knowing it was the end... he cut off both my arms with the chainsaw and then in my dream i said “my head. just do it.” and he started cutting my head off with it and i woke up and now the back of my neck is burning..
later got up & found scratches on the back of my neck as well.
The attack was so sudden that shocked me and I felt that my heart is beating too fast that I'm gonna die but we all ran off that place but while running they were just behind me with there swords and with loud voices as a mob. Finally I escaped the mob
And now I am awake but I'm still shaking
What was that with the dream because I still feel it that was scary
(which i honestly had no clue who it was)
Kept walking a little scared and right before entering one guy ran up and took asked for our names and we asked why he said he jus needed to know and then said "once everyones in class we are blowing up this school" and all of them had guns in their hands..
So i just ran as fast as i could and a man started shooting but the man who was talking to me told them to stop and when i got into the woods i watched the school get blown up as soon as tht second bell rang and i watched people get shot. I then ran home and told my grandma and she didnt believe me and then i went to a milk shake place and that gang was driving by and the same dude that let me go spotted me but didnt say anything to his gang and out of no where my friend that i was walking with showed up and we were talking about it then we saw cop cars and fire trucks and ambulances rushing by and then i woke up.
please help me this is a very disturbing dream I woke up crying
Anyway my dream, I was having a very soft normal dream about having to drive somewhere with some friends, when all off a sudden my dream was interupted with some bangs then screams of my daughter in reality and the sounds of her being attacked and hurt in the room next to me, however my body wouldnt move initially i was paralysed but i fought it so hard for about 3 seconds i was unparaylised, but everything was silent, everyone still asleep I'd imagined the noises/screams that interupted my initial dream?!?!
1st time: The dream occurs in a white mans house and the person threatens me to clean water up that was thrown on me. I along with 2 white girls he threatens to kill. All 3 of us manage to take him down. When he throws water on me He tells me clean it up and calls me a name. The phone rings and the person threatens me as well. After the phine call is when we attack. I wake up.
2nd time: back in the house the man isn't there yet and my sister, Dom, and Shawn are trying to show me how to attack him. I learn how to wipe something on th e skins and light it causing it burn open by testing it out on Shawn. The guy returns with a a white person holding a gun similar to an AK-47 I end up crawling on the ground outside and I maybe hear an attack/explosion. I wake up.
3rd time: back at the house waiting for the guy to return and this time my line sisters show up gearing up to help me. This time I'm crawling on the ground, the guy and others white ppl are there with machine guns. I'm crawling on the ground then I'm heading back inside successfully defeating the ppl. And my line sisters are sharing with me who all will be staying with me. I wake up.
I go to the restroom to try and calm my nerves. As soon as i get back in bed the vision of the white guy with black hair, sky blue top with black cargo shorts is all that I can see. I begin to cry.
I dreamed that my sister and were in the kitchen when I heard someone in a room elsewhere in a house, It was dark and when I got there I was sure I saw something, my sister did not believe me and followed me to the room, but on the way there I kept telling myself to look for a weapon in case there is trouble. Before I could warn her that a light was on the that room I turned around and a man all dresses in black attached me, I actually woke up from my own screams.
please explain
A man knocked on the door late at night, everyone’s still up so probably around 10pm, he’s wearing a blue tracksuit and has a black eye, I just got home with a couple that I don’t know, a boy and girl that are clearly together. Mum gets up and opens it and he walks straight in and sort of shakes his arms out as if ready for a fight and no ones seems to bother so I stand up in a defensive way. He goes to hit me and pulls out a knife, I shout for the boy to do something and he stands up hits him once then sits back with his girlfriend. The man is now on his knees but pointing the knife at me and attempts to stab me again so I hit him with the closest things I can grab but nothing seems to deter him, he keeps trying to stab me and he’s slowly getting closer. As he goes to stab me again I wake up.
I just litterally had a dream where im laying down on my bed in my room just like right now and some man rushed into my room and was comin at me to grab me really fast and right before he grabbed or he did grabbed me i woke up to my own noise from screaming. My heart beat was at max like i just sprinted and my whole body was shaking. Man was tall with a bald head but i coundt see his face because lights were off but i saw him comin towards me. I've never been that scared in my life,now im sleeping with lights on.
What this possibly can mean?
We enter the kitchen where a guy has a hammer and is striking my son on top of the head in slow motion yet my son is frozen against the counter with terror in his eyes. Me and the other guy try to tell the one attacking my son what is really happening yet he won’t stop hitting my son so I move forward to stop him. He then turns the hammer on my head. It doesn’t hurt me and it is in slow motion as the entire fight scene yet I’m fighting the slow motion to protect my son. With each hammer hit, I can only move slower then the hammer is gone and he’s putting his fingers in my mouth around my front teeth and I start trying to bite his finger landing a couple of successful blows with no effect to him at all. I pull his hair to yank his head back and he doesn’t move at all. Then I wake up. Usually I don’t remember dreams yet this one is vivid and clear. Two other people in the kitchen other than me, son, and the attacker that don’t move to help nor hinder. Living room guy was understanding of the situation yet the guy in the kitchen was calculated and such with his hits and where they landed. Top of my and son’s head and touching my lower front teeth of mouth. Never have seen any of the three men before in my waking life. Please help cause I’m really confused over this dream.
I remember it started out with my dog noticing some noises outside of the house, I then hear/see the garage door open. I go back to look through the peep hole on the front door to see what’s going on. I remember seeing a Dog, not sure what kind i just remember it being a large dog and the silhouette of a large man standing behind him on my front porch. I then hear them start to try to get into the house from different angles, the garage, front door, side window by my room, and the back door. I remember feeling scared and unsure about what was going on the whole time. I remember telling my parents ( p.s. they’re deaf and I’m 20 and home for the summer from college so not a super odd aspect of the dream) that something was going on and someone was trying to break in but they just continued to not do anything about it and didn’t seem worried by it all. i vividly remember arguing with my dad to do something, to get a Gun and protect us but he just kept sitting there shaking it off and saying he would do it tomorrow or later on. I remember feeling so outraged by it and also even more scared. The men finally managed to break in through the front door and once inside i notice there were 3-4 fully grown huge men that entered the house. The setting automatically shifted from the living room to the door of my parents bedroom where I had grabbed a two-pronged grilling fork ( not odd since i had just found one while cleaning the house earlier that day) to use to attack them with, but when I went to attack with it the prongs automatically became bent when i lifted it and ended up doing no damage at all. I remember feeling even more frustrated and confused and scared. I ten immediately try my pepper spray on them from nearly “point blank” distance, i remember i kept spraying and spraying but it wasn’t having any affect on them at all. The whole time the men were just laughing at my attempts. The dream continued on with the three men “comendeering” one of the rooms in our house and running their illegal “businesses” out of it. The whole time i remember pleading with my dad to go buy a gun because we can’t trust these men but he just kept shaking it off and saying he would do it later or that he would do it tomorrow like it was no big deal. Then the dream just sorta ends and i wake up.
I'm in an abandoned building with two other people and we find ourselves in a basement full of sand, patches of grass, and the sun barely shining in the corner of the room. A mans head is out of the sand, I go to touch him and he yells run away, get out before he gets you. One of the people that came with me is gone, and a tall figure appears and lookes at me. He wears a long black old jacket, long black hair, pale, and deep black eyes. he throws the head at the head that was in the ground and knocks out the the other man that was with me. I start to run down some stairs, and the figure is chasing after me. He keeps getting closer, and I start to throw up blood. I try to stop to rest, but I keep running. blooed still dripping from my mouth. I find a window and jump into a room in a different building. A small boy stands there. he doesnt talk. He melts into blood and the black figure come up behind me and wraps his arms around me. Thats when I wake up... What does this mean?
Ask Analyse Dreams a question
Ask our editorial team a question and we will reply with our advice. Tell us as much about your situation as you can: the more detail you give, the more useful our answer can be.
You do not need to use your real name. Please do not include your full address, phone number, email address, or the names of other people. We may edit or remove identifying details for privacy and legal reasons.
Comments are moderated before publication.