10 Common Nightmares (And What They Actually Mean)

8. Being Alone Or Left By Your Partner

We've all been there - a break-up is called a 'break'-up for a reason: they're messy, they're hard, and they freaking hurt. In the world of dreams, they can also appear regardless of conflict in the actual relationship, often in the guise of the dreamer being left alone, cheated on, or abandoned by the person they love. Dreams of this kind do indeed suck, and they can particularly be hard and devastating on people with low self-esteem in relationships. Sometimes, they're so overwhelmingly real that you end up smacking your partner with a pillow for cheating on you when you wake up. What It Means... Quite simply, a nightmare about being abandoned or left by a partner or spouse is caused by insecurities about the relationship ending. Much like the horribly destructive behaviour of going over worst-case scenarios in your head, a nightmare about being left alone by your partner is a production of your mind stirring up old insecurities and worries about your relationship to the point where you experience the pain of them leaving you in a context actually removed from any real-world ramifications. Is this a good thing, knowing you can survive the break up should things go wrong? Maybe, but the vast majority of people would rather keep their relationship at a good place rather than visualising how to deal with its end.