Making Sense of Early Childhood Nightmares (18 Months)
This is actually a true recounting of my very first nightmare. The experience was lucid and terrifying. I must have been a toddler, because I remember being in a crib prior to falling into my slumber, and waking up screaming once the terror concluded.
My parent’s bedroom, where the crib resided, was not dark. My mom always left the light on when I was in their bedroom sleeping (throughout my childhood I would go sleep on a pallet of blankets on occasion). The lights, however, did not matter at all.
I “woke” up to quite a sight. Reptilian heads leered over the railing of the crib, teeth baring, drooling, moving realistically. I was terrified. I could feel their breath rake over my tiny body and I could smell their breath, an unoffensive scent akin to petrichor, basically the smell rain has right before it saturates the earth below.
These creatures were dark green, almost black. they had slithering tongues and knobby heads. I cannot say they were dinosaurs, but their heads resembled that of a Komodo dragon, or some other lizard head.
And then it was over. Just like that.
Why did this stick with me? I can barely remember anything from my childhood. This is the first memory I can pull out and recount out of few. Why this one, though? I had never seen lizards or monsters before. Where did this come from?
Weird Science
Did you know mice can inherit genetic fear from their parents? In a study, scientists learned that subjects who developed a fear to certain fear to stimuli managed to pass that fear down to their offspring. Simply put, this idea is based around the field of epigenetics. If you want to learn more about epigenetics, Google is rife with scientific studies and stories to help you wrap your head around it. I am not going deep into this subject. I am merely going to tell you that epigenetics allows your ancestors, from your parents, to the rats we evolved from, to pass down “genetic memories.”
Theories abound from this idea! Why are we innately afraid of snakes? Spiders? Dogs? Big cats? Bears? Why are we afraid of these things before we even really know what they are? The fear of water, heights, and the previously mentioned items are possible genetically given to you from your mom, your great great grandmother, or whatever creatures lived through experiences that are your direct ancestors.
Holocaust survivors passed their tremendous anxieties onto their offspring. Epigenetics isn’t just mental or emotional gifts, but also physical traits as well. Children born into a family of athletes, or people who are tremendously physically active in general, tend to have a better outcome in that area. It isn’t a guarantee, however.
My Tik Tok Video Finished Uploading
Decided to write about that memory, and speak on epigenetic theory. Take an inventory of your mental health, your physical abilities, your overall physical health. What do you think you inherited? Goodnight.