Eight-Legged Freakout

Last night, I had the most vivid dream that my scalp was covered with tiny little black spiders no bigger than the end of your finger. In the dream, I kept putting my hands in my hair and leaning forward to flick the spiders from my head. And then at some point, I realized the spiders were literally coming out of my head, from this bump above my forehead at my hairline. Spiders upon spiders. I started awake and lay very still as chills descended on me from head to toe. So real was the dream that I was afraid to touch my head, and so I tried to ignore the creepy crawling feeling on my skin and go back to sleep. I couldn't shake the sensation of tickling legs for the rest of the morning and even checked my pillowcases to rule out actual spiders.

When dreams are this vivid, I feel like they must mean something - something my brain can't quite work out when I'm awake and thinking and so must consider while I'm asleep. I looked up spiders in several dream dictionaries, and their appearance in dreams can be sinister or an omen of good luck (for, like, getting a job?). One source suggested that spiders represent irrational fears and anxieties, but ones that are more complex, hence their representation by eight-legged creatures. And that they also can signify a feeling of oppression or stagnation. Other sources indicated that spiders are symbolic of the creative spirit, and that they simple indicate that you have a creative itch you need to scratch.

But in truth, the dream felt more like a little arachnid army of anxieties marching around my head followed by the realization that I was the source of the madness. Perhaps it was a combination of things: a laundry list of insecurities and doubts surging to the surface, a niggling sense that I've let my writing lay dormant for too long, and all this heat that has everything slow-roasting in its tracks. Whatever the case, I may sleep with Raid under my pillow tonight.