WHEN Dreams SIGNAL Danger Ahead

Since ancient times, warning dreams have been used to predict medical diagnoses. Today, doctors and the women in this story-are learning that what happens when you close your eyes might save your life.

- AMY PATUREL, M.S., M.P.H.

During the summer of 2013, when Suzanne D Degregorio was 43, she began waking from a deep sleep with memories of a recurrent dream: "It's your time to get cancer," she heard over and over again, almost as if she had an appointment to meet the disease.

"I ignored the dreams because they pissed me off," she says. Suzanne had gotten a clean mammogram. Her radiologist casually mentioned that she had dense breasts but didn't otherwise sound any alarms. Nevertheless, when Suzanne's annual breast screening was due in December, she pushed for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in conjunction with a mammogram, as MRIs are more likely to spot abnormalities through dense breast tissue.

"In between getting the MRI and getting the results, I had another dream, but this time a woman in a white lab coat with short, curly hair said, 'You have Stage III breast cancer,' says Suzanne. "I woke up knowing she was right."

Within two weeks, the MRI results uncovered a suspicious region and a biopsy confirmed that Suzanne had cancer, but instead of Stage III breast cancer, she tested positive for Stage I, Grade 3, HER2-positive cancer. "Grade 3 indicates that cancerous cells are highly aggressive; Stage I means the tumor hasn't spread," says Suzanne. "I suspect my subconscious grabbed the word 'Stage,' a term I was familiar with, to indicate the gravity of my disease."

Suzanne met with a cancer counselor to discuss next steps before beginning treatment. "When the counselor walked into the room, I homed in on her curly hair, then her facial features it was the lady who had diagnosed me in my dream," she says.