No, these aren’t dreams. I’m literally running around gasping for breath and screaming nonstop trying to find all of my teeth. All night. Don’t care what I look like, just that I need to find them all and can’t.

I wake up with a physically sore chest and full body sweats because of how stressed/distraught I was in the nightmare. It’s almost like a sleep paralysis thing because I know it’s a dream, but can never scream hard enough to wake myself up. That’s why I get the sore chest...from silently screaming so hard at myself.

I have been on anxiety meds for years, and I only have these dreams at the height of stressful periods in my life. When I have one of these nightmares, I know it’s time to slow down and take care of myself. It’s like... a sign my surroundings are spiraling out of my control.

It might just be physical insecurity for some people though, so I won’t discredit that theory! Just not in my one purely anecdotal case lol