“Nightmare about Homunculus?”
I am an adult but as a child, I had nightmares about, what I now know to be a Homunculus figure with big hands, lips, and tongue. The nightmare would start with me holding a length of wool. Someone at the other end of my bedroom, who I could not see in the dark, would be winding the wool into a ball. As the wool came to the end and the ball of wool grew large I became aware that the person on the other end was a Homunculus. As it came closer to me I would struggle to breathe because it and the ball of wool were filling my room and taking all the air. I would awake from these nightmares screaming and suffer breathlessness and clenched jaws. On waking from the nightmare I would have the experience that my hands, lips, and tongue were huge, this would last for some time until my father was able to calm me back to sleep.
These nightmares went on for at least a year and my doctor told my father, who had taken me out of a children's home, when I was 5, that I must have suffered from a trauma that I could not describe and that time would heal the problem, which it largely did. However, as a result, I have suffered from a fear of the dark and insomnia ever since along with anxiety. I am aware of the Homunculus in relationship to the brain and how it sees itself, but why have my childhood nightmares left a residue in the present as I can still experience the impact of the nightmares. By this I mean I can replicate the horrible sensation in my hands, lips, and tongue just by thinking about those nightmares.
These nightmares went on for at least a year and my doctor told my father, who had taken me out of a children's home, when I was 5, that I must have suffered from a trauma that I could not describe and that time would heal the problem, which it largely did. However, as a result, I have suffered from a fear of the dark and insomnia ever since along with anxiety. I am aware of the Homunculus in relationship to the brain and how it sees itself, but why have my childhood nightmares left a residue in the present as I can still experience the impact of the nightmares. By this I mean I can replicate the horrible sensation in my hands, lips, and tongue just by thinking about those nightmares.
Female | 39 years old
Complaint duration: life long
Medications: None
Conditions: Fiibromyalgia
3 Answers
See this link:
https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/nightmares-in-adults
or
https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/recurring-nightmares
for some insight.
https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/nightmares-in-adults
or
https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/recurring-nightmares
for some insight.
You are the classic clinical case for Psychoanalysis therapy using the Psychodynamic model of Sigmund Freud. Lots of unconscious material information is filtering from your past experiences to your present. Your childhood was not easy for you. But it is a very interesting case. You can feel happy. Psychoanalysis can be helpful for your life. Enjoy your therapy with a good psychotherapist (psychoanalysis oriented).
God bless you!!
God bless you!!
The brain undergoes a variety of developmental changes in sleep architecture during childhood, including changes in the appearance of "sleep spindles," a group of rhythmic waves characterized by progressively increasing, then gradually decreasing amplitude which occur during stage 2 NREM sleep before dreaming (REM). It is now believed that their contribution includes sleep promotion and maintenance associated to sensory gating, motor representation development, and cognition and memory consolidation. Patterns of sleep spindles and slow oscillations change dramatically between childhood and adolescence, and mediate memory consolidation.
Perhaps this experience may best be considered a process of the brain working itself out, notwithstanding its representation as trauma. Perhaps it is best to give the childhood phenomenon less attention, so as to better engage alternative circuits. Residual trauma may benefit from debriefing.
Jeffrey L. Rausch, MD
Perhaps this experience may best be considered a process of the brain working itself out, notwithstanding its representation as trauma. Perhaps it is best to give the childhood phenomenon less attention, so as to better engage alternative circuits. Residual trauma may benefit from debriefing.
Jeffrey L. Rausch, MD
