Sleeping in a haunted house

In this dream, I found myself staying the night in a strange house (I didn't realise it was haunted until later on). I don't know why I was there, but I'd chosen to leave my flat and stay in this place for some reason.

When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was that it was unusually dark. I also heard a rustling sound coming from up the stairs in the house, and assumed it was another resident (I think it was meant to be some kind of shared house). I found my room (which was downstairs on the first left) and set up for the night.

After a while, I decided to go and investigate the noise from upstairs. I walked half way up the stairs (where again, there was very little light), and called out to whoever was up there. I heard no response, and by this point, the sounds I'd heard before had stopped. It was then that I "knew" (in the way you just seem to in dreams) that this was a haunted house.

At this realisation, I did not want to stay a second longer, so I went back downstairs to pack my things and leave. When I got back to my room, I tried to switch on the light, but it had stopped working. I was now in total darkness. This was my second indication that something was not right about this place.

I then groped around for my mobile phone and decided to use the light from that instead. I used to phone to help my find my things and pack them away in my bags - and I had LOTS of bags. As I was doing this, I thought to myself that as Plan B, I was going to call my sister and ask to stay the night at her place instead. Again, I didn't know why I didn't just go back to mine, but there you have it.

Anyway, as I packed, I contemplated my plan; I'd pack up, leave, then call my sister to let her know I was coming over. As I did this, I tried to keep an eye on the time because I didn't want to go over when it was too late in the evening. I suddenly woke up in the middle of my packing, as strange, haunting guitar music played in the background

POSSIBLE MEANING:

According to a very informative dream dictionary I often consult, most dreams refer to major incidents that occurred the day before, and I am confident this is the case with this particular dream.

The day before, I went to visit my siter at her place. She is not well at the moment, having been off work long-term sick with a condition called Myalgic Encephelomyelitis.

As someone who enjoys her work, she has not taken to this extended convalescence too well. Not only that, but my mother has the same condition. Watching both of them suffer with this has been a source of immense frustration for me. I've felt helpless seeing people I care about go through something like this whilst feeling totally and utterly helpless in being able to alleviate their plight.

Having consulted the aforementioned dream dictionary, I can see that the dream is addressing this issue directly. Houses, it can be said either relate to the dreamer or people close to them. In this case, I think it relates to me trying understand what my sister was going through, and perhaps the darkness of the house represented the "dark" mood I found her in the day before. Me wanting to go to her's, I think also alludes to my attempt to sympathise with what she is going through.

As for the haunted atmosphere, the dream dictionary I linked to lists feeling ineffective as a possible key phrase that relates to haunting. It appears to have some significance here because, as mentioned above, that is how I feelt in observing the suffering of someone close to me without being able to do anything about it. Luggage in the same dictionary points to "the burden of your responsibilities and emotional problems that follow you around" and whilst I do not consider my family a burden per se, what is an issue for me (as stated above) is being so helpless to alleviate their suffering. This feeling of helplessness literally "haunts" me.

So, this dream, I believe clearly points to the emotions I felt having seen my sister yesterday in her despondent state. I'm just glad my visit cheered her up. All I need to do now is think about how I can apply the message of this dream to the situation at hand.