A friend and former co-worker sent me this on facebook this morning. I must say that I know little about the meanings of dreams, I just like the info from this site. Enjoy.

by Dr. Laurel Clark and Paul Blosser

More About Nightmares

Adults have nightmares, too. Nearly everyone (83.7%) reported having nightmares and twenty-one percent reported having nightmares before the age of fourteen. In fact, sometimes people are prompted to investigate their dreams because of a nightmare that is so vivid and scary it really gets their attention! Common nightmares include being trapped or chased, teeth falling out, or being in school and suddenly finding out that there is a test for which you are unprepared. Nightmares occur when the subconscious mind tries repeatedly to relate a dream message but the message is ignored. This might occur when you don’t recall dreams often or when you give little attention to your dreams at all. A nightmare is when the subconscious mind “yells” at you to get your attention to shock you into remembering the dream. By learning to interpret your dream messages, you can understand what your subconscious mind wants to convey. When you apply the message to your life and make the necessary changes, you change, and as a result, your dreams change. You experience fewer nightmares. As you increase in Self awareness you find that you rarely, if ever, will have nightmares because your conscious awareness is aligned with the Truth contained within your subconscious mind.
The common nightmares just related mean the following: when you are being chased by an unknown person, this means that there is some part of yourself you avoid or do not want to face. When you face yourself, admit your insecurities and then take steps to learn what has been previously unknown, this kind of dream will change. You will literally begin to face yourself. Being trapped or unable to move indicates that the dreamer in his waking state thinks that he is limited in his choices or has no choice. In truth, the dreamer’s use of imagination is limited. He probably causes himself to be paralyzed mentally, by negative thinking, doubt, or hesitation. The dreamer could talk to other people to stimulate his imagination, identify what he wants, and set goals. The solution is to make choices that are purposeful and act on them. “Food” in a dream symbolizes knowledge. Teeth are what we use to chew and digest our food; therefore the dream of teeth falling out indicates that the old way of receiving knowledge is no longer applicable to the dreamer. Oftentimes people who have this dream have learned something new in their life but have yet to apply it in all areas. “School” in a dream symbolizes the way that a dreamer learns about him or herself. Frequently adults do not view their life experiences as a classroom; they think of learning in terms of school subjects like geometry or English or chemistry. In our everyday life experiences, we have opportunities to learn about ourselves. When one dreams of being unprepared for a test, it means that the dreamer has lessons in life that keep being presented, but he or she is not learning them. Asking oneself, “Why?” and then answering it with action is one way to apply this dream. For example, suppose a woman who is rather self-effacing and who keeps saying to herself, “I need to believe in myself” has the dream of being unprepared for school. If she examines her life, she will find that she has opportunities every day to be more confident. Perhaps she has a really good idea that she hesitates to tell her boss because she is afraid it is not good enough. Learning confidence and belief in herself requires practice. Therefore, when she musters the courage to voice her idea she is taking some beginning steps to learn to believe in herself. If she does this, that night she might dream that she has a test in school and receives a good grade on it! She is learning in her daily experiences.
When you learn to interpret dreams and use the messages to cause change in yourself, you can mark the progress of your expanding consciousness by seeing how quickly your dreams change in response. They are a very accurate gauge.

Check the link for the whole article
http://www.som.org/1dreams/nightmaresurvey.htm