Page 145 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

126 Mysteries of the Mind

“The Nightmare” On October 2, 2001, clinical psychologist Boston’s Logan Airport following the hijack-
engraving by Henry Alan Siegel, editor of Dream Time magazine, ings of the jets that crashed into the Twin Tow-
Fuseli. (FORTEAN told Mike Conklin, reporter for the Chicago ers, cautioned that in some cases it might be six
PICTURE LIBRARY) Tribune, that the people of the United States months or a year before certain people would
had entered a “national epidemic of night- begin having traumatic dreams of the series of
mares” brought on by the destruction of the events that occurred on September 11, 2001.
World Trade Center on September 11. “Night- Siegel went on to explain that such night-
mares are a cardinal symptom of something mares should be considered the brain’s natur-
traumatic in [One’s] life,” Siegel said. “In this al means of dealing with the trauma, dis-
case, we’ve lost our sense of security, and this is pelling it through the subconscious while
something more traumatic than most Ameri- people are sleeping. Although people tend to
cans have really experienced before.”
think of nightmares as a kind of mental poi-
Dr. Michael Friedman, a sleep specialist at son, Siegel said that, in reality, “they are a
Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in form of vaccine.”
Chicago, agreed that there was no question
that they had begun treating many patients M Delving Deeper
with sleep problems and nightmares related to Conklin, Mike. “Plague of Nightmares Descend on
the incidents of that terrible event. Deirdre Elm Street.” Tribune, October 2, 2001. [Online]
Barrett, a psychology professor at Harvard http://chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/
Medical Center who supervised counselors at chi-0110020007oct02.story?coll=chi-leisureterr.

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