April is National Poetry Month, and today we're discussing poems that help us understand, manage, and recover from anxiety dreams. We'll compare Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream within a Dream" and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Pains of Sleep" to help us distinguish an anxiety dream from a nightmare. We'll use the opening lines of Endymion by John Keats to explore a strategy for restoring calm after a stressful experience, and we'll end with Susan Coolidge's advice in "New Every Morning" for making each day a new beginning, even after a bad night. Wishing you all a Happy National Poetry Month, and sweet dreams!

Image:

"The Nightmare" by Henry Fuseli, 1781.

Resources:

Cleveland Clinic. “Anxiety Dreams: Why We Have Them and How to Stop Them.” 23 October 2025.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.  “The Pains of Sleep.”

Coolidge, Susan. “New Every Morning.”

Keats, John. Endymion. 

Poe, Edgar Allan. “A Dream within a Dream.” 

Women’s March. “Protest Safety Training Series: Situational Awareness.” 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.