Surges in progesterone and estrogen, as well as the obvious HCG/pregnancy hormone, are to blame for pretty much every pregnancy symptom that exists, from moodiness, sore breasts, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, food aversions, etc. But what I wasn’t quite expecting while reading about pregnancy symptoms is that women also tend to experience more vivid dreams and nightmares as a result of being pregnant, particularly in the first and third trimesters. And this, in somehow and some way, can also be attributed to the surges in progesterone due to pregnancy.

Many women who had never really remembered their dreams prior to becoming pregnant report greater dream recall during pregnancy. They also say that there is an increase in nightmares that feel very, very real. Granted, I’ve always been a vivid dreamer who thinks her dreams are real as she’s experiencing them, but in the last few months, my dream recall has been relatively poor.

The dream I had last night was very much out of the normal range for me. I had a dream I was at the border of two countries… who the heck knows what countries. And we had an endless number of huge crates filled with tropical citrus. I was charged with illegally getting these citrus from one country to the next by smuggling them in and hiding them underneath some other legally recognized cargo. I was working with two other people, and we were mapping out the route we were going to take on the road, the excuses we’d make at the border check-point, what we’d show the border patrol agents, and approximately how much time this would take. It felt like a very high stress, high stakes endeavor, and the pressure was on.

Maybe in some ways, this does make sense for me to dream about from a pregnancy perspective because I have been experiencing cravings for grapefruit that I’ve never really gotten before. While I’ve always enjoyed grapefruit, it’s tasted even more delicious to me in the last couple weeks than ever before. I wonder what I will dream up next.