We all have nightmares or bad dreams
from time to time and it’s never a pleasant experience. What’s the reason
behind having bad dreams? There are a couple reasons why nightmares occur.
Sometimes there are physical reasons such as illness or fever, or taking
certain medications, which can effect our dreams. But if you aren’t sick or
taking medication, why else might you suffer from bad dreams?
The other main cause of bad dreams is
stress and anxiety. Dreams are our minds way of processing information that it
is not able to consciously do when we are awake. As we sleep, our mind
processes information and deals with stress, anxiety and trauma through our
dreams. Dreams help our mind to release bottled up stress that we might be
holding on to in our lives. Similarly, if we are going through any major
changes in our lives or dealing with any major events that are having an effect
on our emotions, we will often see our minds working through the stress through
bad dreams. Some examples of stressful situations that our minds may be
processing through bad dreams are:
· The
death of a loved one
· Changing
jobs or schools
· Moving
· A
conflict with a close friend
· A
break up
While bad dreams are stressful and
unpleasant to wake up to, they aren’t actually harmful in any way. It’s hard to
believe, but bad dreams are actually a good thing, as our minds are working
through unpleasant emotions that we need to process, but can’t consciously do
on our own. In this way, bad dreams can have a cleansing effect.
If you find yourself having bad dreams
constantly and want to stop the cycle, try doing some soul searching and
working through some of your stress while you’re awake to help minimize the
amount of work your mind needs to do while you’re asleep. Great ways to help
process anxiety and stress while awake are through exercise, journaling,
talking to a friend, etc. Basically, anything that is releasing the stress out
of your body and mind instead of keeping it bottled up inside. Actively
releasing stress by day can help to minimize the amount of processing that
needs to take place in our minds as we sleep, which will help to reduce the
number of bad dreams that you have.
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+ comments + 1 comments
I disagree that bad dreams are not harmful. Physically they arent, but mentally they can affect you for a long time after you wake up. I went through a period where I was having several nightmares every night and when I woke up I felt scared, tired, and depressed. These nightmares wore me down over time, and I got even more stressed. Then with this stress came higher blood pressure and heart palpitations and stomach aches. So I would not say nightmares are harmless all the time. Sure, once in awhile they dont hurt, but they can be dangerous.
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