Many people have problems breathing during sleep, even if they do not have full-blown apnea, and this can be reflected in one’s dream life.
If not an apnea symptom, holding one’s breath in a dream represent an expression of will, or repressing one’s anxieties or emotions. Breathing is also central to an unusually large number of idioms: “a breath of fresh air,” “a waste of breath,” “take your breath away,” “catch your breath,” “out of breath,” and the like, any one of which could find expression in one’s dreams.
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