When Our Dreams Speak Louder Than Words

Lately, I’ve been having some unsettling dreams, ones that leave me wide awake in the dark, heart racing and mind spinning. In one, I’ve done something terrible. In another, I’m back at school, panicking because I didn’t study for my year 12 exams. I wake up shaken, wondering what on earth is going on in my head?

But as confronting as they are, I’ve started to realise something: our dreams often say what our waking selves are too tired, or too afraid, to speak aloud.

Sometimes life feels heavy. We do our best to keep everything together, but stress, change, and uncertainty can pile up quietly until they start showing themselves in our sleep. Dreams like these can be confronting, but they often carry messages of release and renewal.

Dreams about killing or burying someone aren’t about violence. They’re about trying to bury the pain, frustration, or anger that’s built up. They’re the mind’s dramatic way of saying, “I can’t keep carrying this. Something has to change.”

The exam dreams are just as telling. They often appear when we feel like we’re being tested, not by teachers this time, but by life. They’re about feeling unprepared, judged, or afraid of not measuring up.

When we put those dreams together, they whisper a truth many of us don’t want to admit: we’re tired. We’ve been trying to do the right thing, to meet expectations, to keep peace in our homes and hearts and deep down, we’re scared it’s not enough.

But here’s the thing. Dreams aren’t punishments; they’re invitations. They’re our subconscious saying, “Please listen. Please rest. Please let go of what’s hurting you.”

So instead of pushing them away, I’ve started to sit with them. I ask myself:
• What am I trying to bury?
• What am I afraid of failing at?
• And what do I need to forgive in myself, or in others so that peace can grow again?

Because even in the chaos, there’s always grace. Sometimes it comes to us not in the light of day, but in the quiet whisper of a dream, asking us to heal.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28

And maybe that’s what these dreams are really about not fear or failure, but an invitation to rest in that promise. To hand over what we’ve been holding too tightly and trust that, even while we sleep, God is gently healing the parts of us we can’t yet understand.
Christine Bunn

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