I'm not going to shy in the corner, I'll admit that I find all of Beyonce's songs well catchy. One song in particular is "Sweet Dreams," however in someways I find this song somewhat confusing. She suggests that "beautiful nightmares" exist, how can a nightmare be beautiful? We've all experienced nightmares when we were little and they are usually about monsters under the bed or in the closet and years later we get a laugh about it. Most humans get a connection with others through similar nightmares that we have when we are kids. However, for select people their nightmares continue into adulthood and they turn out to be not so "beautiful."
Some people continue to have nightmares into adulthood, but most are too embarrassed to admit that they even have them. Many do not know what it means to be afraid to go to sleep for fear of what they will be seeing when they close their eyes. Once your eyes close its only a matter of minutes until the images start to flash through and one begins living the dream and it feels so real. As if anything that occurs within the nightmare is truly happening to you while you sleep and your body reacts. Some that do have nightmares in adulthood do not feel this way about them because they do not have any relation to anything in real life, so its just a little bump in the night that one can easily jump over. However, when related to an event that happened when awake, that bump turns into a mountain, now seeming impossible to climb.
I find the phrase "beautiful nightmare" an oxymoron and paradoxical. Never, have I experienced a nightmare that is considered to be beautiful. In fact, they haunt some in the waking world, eliciting hypervigilance and preventing them from living the life they want to life. Can one even imagine some of the nightmares that haunt people in their sleep. They are almost indescribable, and too painful to attempt to even remember for some. How would you feel about making yourself stay awake just because you know that it is a full proof way of ensuring that you won't get a nightmare? You struggle with the fact that one needs sleep in order to survive, however then also struggle with the pure fear running through your veins as soon as you close your eyes.
When we are young, what things go bump in the night? Usually monsters under the bed, and for me personally I even kind of liked my nightmares as a child because they were fun! So, I'm not sure that one can classify them as nightmares, since I did enjoy them. However, as an adult the definition of nightmare has changed drastically. Unfortunately, for me, it is almost impossible to express my point without sacrificing my usual vagueness. Go back in time to high school, and think of your high school sweet heart, they were amazing weren't they? Maybe they were your first love, or the first one that you get to share intimate moments with. They are supposed to bring you comfort and good memories not nightmares. In truth my high school sweetheart may be my "beautiful nightmare." I loved him so much but the nightmares he gives me forces me to live in fear of what images come to mind when my eyes close. He truly creates a paradox in my life.
Again how does one define a "beautiful nightmare?" Do we all have them? Are they constantly there reminding us of how life can be a paradox? So you tell me, is it a "sweet dream" or a "beautiful nightmare?"
