Why can't you scream?

Question

I had a dream...and i was with my dad and a cat [i had a cat in my dream] and we went to my godmother's father's house who recently passed away. IDK why we went there. so anywaysz we were alone in the house and my dad was watching tv and i was lookin for somethin to eat. well my cat started running around the house. like he/she wasnt calm or relaxed. well i was scared cuz i knew the house was built in the 1800's and i thot a ghost was there,so i wanted to go on the internet and see what cats do when they sense spirits and stuff. so i got the laptop and my dad said he had to change his shirt, so he left the room and while i was hooking up the internet. i saw a man with a suit on, walk across the room and stopped in the middle of the room but didnt look at me. i wanted to scream, but i couldnt, my scream came out like a whisper, and i couldnt move. i just stared at the ghost. why cant we scream when were scared? was it cuz i was haf sleep and what doz my dream mean and y do i have a cat

Answer 1

You first inhale when you react something scary and your tightening up your muscles and the air doesn't want to come out with all that contraction of your diaphragm.

Answer 2

First of all, not all dreams are literal, so just because you had a cat in the dream doesn't really mean anything other than the fact that it helped as part of the dream. As for screaming, sometimes even in our dreams we scare ourselves so much to the point that our body tenses up, hence why some people can't run or move when they are dreaming.. Your brain more than likely told your body to tense up due to the fear and you couldn't scream, just like sometimes happens in real life.

Answer 3

This may not answer your question fully, but it makes me think of "sleep paralysis". When we dream, our bodies become temporarily paralyzed at times as a way of stopping us from acting out our dreams in bed. For example, if you're running in a dream, your physical body wouldn't be making the movements as well- that would be a disaster if you were in bed with someone! Maybe this had to do with you being unable to scream- I have had dreams like that too.