Most people don’t have precognitive dreams. They may reel off an accurate prediction now and then, but that’s more of a question of getting lucky.
It’s not useful if it’s not consistent.
That doesn’t mean one can’t put two situations together and determine a likely result. That’s not the same thing as being able to tell the future. That’s a function of plain, ‘ol unsexy logic.
But when it comes to a nightmare about having a car accident, isn’t that a good thing? Crashing your car is expensive, often painful, and inconvenient.
Not to mention deadly.
Still, horrible as it is to think about, that doesn’t mean you should ignore car accident dreams. There can be important warnings in them. When you dream about a car accident, what can you take away from it?
Be safe
Is your subconscious calling you on your safety habits? It might be. Have you been driving around without your seatbelt? Have you not been paying attention like you should? Are you tailgating when you drive on the freeway?
Maybe it’s not your safety habits. Maybe your subconscious is warning you about the habits of someone who’s driving you.
If that’s the case, it might be time for a difficult conversation.
There are many things a driver should pay attention to. Be sober, keep your eyes open, and relax. Keep up on the maintenance of the car. If you take care of it, it’ll take care of you by helping you to arrive safely.
Your subconscious can and will give you warnings like this.
Warning light anxiety
Sometimes check engine lights can play a role in dreams about car accidents. These can have a root in our waking life.
A lot of the systems on cars are meant to give you information. For example, one sensor that’s common on newer cars tells you when your tires are underinflated.
Unfortunately, tires can lose pressure when the seasons change. They might become slightly underinflated when you don’t expect it and you’ve got to be on time someplace. The continual presence of the sensor letting you know this can cause needless anxiety.
If you set aside some time regularly for maintenance on your car so that you take time to check it out carefully, the warning lights are less likely to bother you in your dreams.
Make time to understand what the light is telling you. Or, if you already understand what it’s telling you, to do something about it.
Other drivers
Sometimes it’s not you. Sometimes it’s the other driver.
Traffic engineers make some yellow lights longer than others. It can be tough for a driver to gauge. Sometimes drivers run red lights.
Sometimes other drivers are sleepy when they drive. It’s a tragedy when they happen to be driving a semi and they run a red light or stop sign.
Same thing when they rear-end someone when they’ve stopped.
Crazy things happen on the roads. Earlier this year, a seemingly intoxicated man was riding a bike toward me in the middle of the road. I had to change lanes quickly to avoid killing him. That incident from three months ago inspired some dreams which inspired this article.
You can’t control other drivers. Even so, it makes sense to drive defensively. Assume everyone else is either an idiot, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, or extremely tired. A little bit of attention to accident prevention can save you from tragedy.
The car accident dream could be telling you to beware of other drivers and pedestrians.
Bad roads
Bad roads can cause these dreams, too.
Cars can swerve to avoid potholes. You can notice others driving unsafely on certain roads, taking curves too fast. That’s an accident waiting to happen, you can’t help but think.
If your car accident dream is about a bad area of a road or road construction and you pass that on your commute or when you’re out, pay attention when you’re driving there.
You are the best person to understand any dream
Ultimately, nobody can tell you what your dream means. Only you can do that. Only you have lived through the experiences and the triggers for them. Only you have had the thoughts.
Take some time to review each of the points and objects in the dream and understand what they mean to you. Dreams use symbolic language to make their points.
Then, when it comes to dreams about car accidents, do something about it if you determine that it represents a safety concern. In general, a stitch in time saves nine applies in this instance. Traffic accident victims can end up with stitches in an emergency department.
My car accident dreams through my many years of dreaming have been full of important warnings for me.
- Don’t look at your phone when you drive.
- Be careful at rural four-way stops (I had a co-worker who was killed at one of these by a semi that blew through a stop sign)
- Watch out for cars crossing the center line.
- Be careful when you’re changing a tire at the side of the road.
The goal is awareness, not paranoia.
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James Cobb, RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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