Writers employ "nightmare" to evoke feelings of intense dread and surreal disturbance, both as a literal experience of bad dreams and as a metaphor for personal and societal upheaval. Some authors describe it in terms of haunting sleep disturbances, capturing that disquieting state from which one struggles to awaken ([1], [2]), while others use it to symbolize inescapable internal torment or chaos in life—evoking memories or events that persist like a dark shadow over one's existence ([3], [4]). At times, the word conveys the overwhelming, almost physical sensation of being submerged in terror or the bizarre quality of an unsettling reality, reflecting both psychological and existential crises ([5], [6]). This flexible usage enriches the narrative, imbuing the text with layers of meaning that resonate with the reader’s own encounters with fear and alienation ([7], [8]).