Dear Lauri,

I dreamed I was waiting at a store. I don’t know what I was waiting for, but it was taking so long that I started to cry in frustration. I put my head in my hands, and when I looked up, there was a mirror in front of me. I could see a bald spot in the front left quarter section of my head, and my hair was in my hands. I woke up in tears.

— Elizabeth, Los Angeles, CA

Lauri: Any emotion you feel in a dream can be directly connected to something in your waking life. What are you sad about in real life? The waiting in the dream references something that is taking a long time.

Losing some of your hair makes me think there might have been a fallout, so to speak. In addition, you might be feeling as if you’re out of ideas. I believe the mirror is there to reveal how worried you are about this issue.

Elizabeth replies: You are correct. I am waiting for my period. I am almost forty-one years old. My husband and I married in November, and neither of us want any more kids. I have one, and my husband has none. He never wanted any, though he and my son get along very well.