Stress and dreams

Rhia and Janka write about their own symptoms of stress. I don't need to do that, since I can usually recognize stress from feeling stressed, but there is one symptom which is a pretty good indication of stress even if I am not feeling stressed yet: I start seeing dreams.

It's not normal for me to dream. Yes, I've heard that all people see dreams every night, and maybe I do too, but normally when I wake up I have no memory whatsoever of having seen any dreams. Every once in a while, maybe once in 5-6 weeks, there is some kind of glitch and I see a dream that I can remember in the morning. If that happens more often it's a symptom of stress. In fact I can measure the level of stress by how often I remember seeing dreams.

My dreams are always nightmares, some mild and some more severe. (This probably just means that I never remember a dream that wasn't a nightmare.) I rarely remember the details, but the most common recurring nightmare involves visiting Russia and being somehow unable to get out of there.