Fear – Fear is a powerful emotion, both in dreams and in waking life. If you feel fear in your dreams, you must examine the person or thing that you fear for insight into what this dream symbol means. Keep in mind that the object of your fear may easily be symbolic and not literal. If you find that your fear constricts your breathing and that you dream about gasping for air, you may suffer from sleep apnea. The brain often uses dreams to assimilate physical events that happen to us when we sleep, and dreams about terror or fear resulting in constriction of breath may indicate that you are experiencing a physical constriction of breath.