We all get nightmares from time to time, you know, those dreams that are so frightening they jolt us awake with our heart beating out of our chest and sweat dripping down our brow. Even celebrities experience this dark side of dreaming. As terrifying as they are, nightmares reveal a lot about ourselves and a lot about these celebrities who were brave enough to share them. Do you get any of these nightmares? If so, share them in the comments.

Katie Couric Has Recurring Nightmares of Plane Crashes

When I was a guest on her show back in April of 2013, she told me that she gets this nightmare quite a bit. Neither you nor Katie should cancel any travel plans because this dream is not showing you the future, instead it means you have suffered a big let down in your real life. Something you had high hopes for came crashing down instead… along with your spirits. Katie has suffered many let downs, which caused emotional crashes: She lost her husband to colon cancer, then her sister to pancreatic cancer. She lost her gig on the CBS Evening News just to name a few. If this is your recurring dream, try not to take things so hard. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep on keeping on. Like Katie, you’re a survivor!

Madonna Has Recurring Nightmares of Being Attacked with A Knife

More specifically, she is attacked by a dwarf with a knife! This nightmare suggests Madonna is feeling victimized in real life. Knives in particular can symbolize cutting, emotionally wounding remarks. Madonna faces a lot of criticism from the media and the public in general. While it may not bother her while she’s awake, it clearly bothers her while she sleeps. And the dwarf? That’s her fear of being dwarfed or diminished in the public eye. Let’s face it, she’s a BIG celebrity and she does everything in a BIG way. However, criticism does bring her ego down to size.

Celine Dion Has Recurring Nightmares of Choking

Choking happens in the throat and the throat is where our voice comes from so to choke in a dream can mean you have a hard time speaking up in real life. You may tend to choke back your words rather than voicing your opinion. For Celine, she chokes on a cold apple in her dreams. This makes sense because her voice is AMAZING and it is how she makes her living; it has been very  “fruitful” for her, hence the apple. Any singer will tell you they must “warm up” their voices before a performance so a voice going cold, like the cold apple, would be a nightmare! For Celine, these dreams are reminding her to take it easy on her voice so she doesn’t “choke” during a performance.

Taylor Swift Has Recurring Nightmares of Murdering

Hard to believe that America’s sweetheart has recurring dreams of being a murderer, isn’t it? To murder in a dream usually isn’t a bad thing. It means you have successfully put an end to something in real life.  In Taylor’s dreams, the murder doesn’t actually take place but rather she has knowledge that she has murdered someone, “I always have nightmares that I’m being framed for murder and then I’m being framed SO well that I can’t remember if I did it or not in the dream. So that really winds me up and then I’m just freaked out for the next couple of days.”

Now, what we all know – and quite frankly love – about Tay Tay, is that she goes through relationships like a bag of Lays potato chips.  We love this about her because her break ups inspire her songs.  These recurrent break ups are likely the murders in her dreams. There is also confusion about whether she actually committed the murders or not; she is framed for the murders. This shows us that in real life, Taylor doesn’t feel she is at fault for the break up (a break up is a forced ending, like a murder is a forced death). But as time goes on, she probably questions herself, “Hmmm. Maybe I was too clingy or too demanding,” for example (she’s framed so well she can’t remember if she actually did murder). But here’s what’s sad about it guys, feeling that she is framed for murder in the dreams might mean in real life she feels used in relationships. She feels used over and over again because she has this same dream over and over again.

Rihanna’s Nightmare of a Building Collapse

Back in 2005, Rihanna and I were on the air together on KZHT in Salt Lake City. She told me she had recently had a nightmare that she and her brother watched a plane crash into a skyscraper. The Skyscraper then collapsed onto her brother. While this nightmare is eerily reminiscent of 9/11, it is actually more about Rihanna’s relationship with her little brother. As with Katie Couric’s dream, planes often symbolize that which you have high hopes for or that in your life you hope will take off. At the time, Rihanna’s first hit “Pon De Replay” (Hey Mr. DJ) was out and her career, like a plane, was taking off. The building is the relationship she had “built” with her brother. It is presented as a sky scraper because she and her brother were very close and the relationship was a BIG part of her life. The plane hits the skyscraper, causing it to collapse because Rihanna – at the time – was worried her busy schedule and jet setting all over the world would conflict with her relationship and that her absence would harm her brother emotionally. As horrible as the nightmare is, it confirms the deep emotional bond she and her brother share and serves as a reminder to keep that bond alive no matter how big her career gets… and man, her career did her career get big since then!

While nightmares may be the scariest dreams of all, they are also the most important dreams of all because they shine a spotlight on a difficult issue we need to take care of. I have an entire chapter on nightmares in my book Dream on It, Unlock Your Dreams Change Your Life. When you can understand your nightmares, you can make them stop!

“This is an AMAZING book! It was given to me as a gift and I love it! I could hardly put it down. I refer back to it often to interpret my dreams now. I loved it so much I recommend it to everyone I know.”   – Mel Martin, Amazon reviewer