I've had several nightmares and few sleep-paralysis with similar hard and disturbing feelings and situations. Sometimes it's related to our life we know (I'm talking about perception of the real life, dreams are something completely different, perception and dimensions for both physical and time is irrelevant). The most complex thing about dreaming is that it can be relative to the real life situations, but sometimes they serve like comparison about certain feels. Try to think outside the box if you really want to solve that "puzzle". Don't compare dreams with things literally. What i want to say... maybe your niece in dreams represents a certain feeling, maybe a certain person - it's up to you. Retrospection of your feelings, and things happened to you in the recent past might help.
In my case, when I'm having bad dreams - it is usually some "buried" feeling that was bothering me for a while, but I haven't given enough time/focus to solve it. Our brains are unexplored, so try to give a look from different angles. Also, don't bother yourself too much, after all it's just a dream trying to say something to you in a harsh way. Have a nice day, and well dreams!
Yeah.
Sometimes dreams are to be taken literally, other times as symbols, and in rare cases as images from travels in other dimensions.
Thanks for your message. It deserves a post of its own💪
I've been observing and "studying" dreams for some time, because I've had various extreme ones which made me feel like never before. I might consider writing my thoughts and experiences on that theme one day. You're welcome :)