Why do I have dreams every night and how to get rid of them

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Published: 12/09/2021

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“All the same dreams! Damn dreams! – with incomprehensible consistency, the monarchist Khvorobyov was tormented by “Soviet” dreams in “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov. The comical situation described in the novel actually turns into a psychological problem for some. If you have dreams every night and an obsessive bad “aftertaste” remains after them, then you should first understand the reasons for the night visions, and only then look for ways to get rid of unpleasant images.

• 1 How the brain forms dreams
• 2 The role of emotional perception
• 3 Factors of nightly dreams 3.1 Psychological causes of terrible dreams
• 3.2 Physical and esoteric causes of negative dreams

4 How to stop having bad dreams

How the brain forms dreams

People have been engaged in unraveling the tangle of events and images, interpreting familiar or strange plots in dreams for a long time. Why do some people have dreams every night, while others claim that they don’t see them at all?

The sleep cycle during the night includes alternation of several phases - slow (orthodox) and fast (paradoxical). Dreams accompany a person throughout the entire cycle. However, if you wake up a person sleeping in the stage of slow-wave sleep, the person will not remember anything. And, on the contrary, awakening in the fast phase will record the picture seen. Consequently, everyone dreams, unless the absence of night dreams is associated with physical head injuries.

The dilemma of why people dream every day has not yet been fully resolved by scientists.

The famous Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov suggested that sleep plays the role of a protective barrier for the brain, tired from the influx of daytime information. Neurons of the cerebral cortex form the mechanism of dreams and are responsible for impulses transmitted to the central nervous system, and then to all organs.

Nerve cells are rebooted and regenerated, daytime information is rethought and often serves as the plot of a night dream. True, not all dreams fall under this definition. For example, Paul McCartney dreamed of the melody Yesterday, and for director James Cameron, the reason for creating the famous “Terminator” was his nightmares.

According to Freudian theory, dreams are a reflection of reality recorded in the subcortex. That is, people only dream of familiar images and famous events. Then what about the table of chemical elements that Mendeleev saw in his dream?

Some scientists believe that dreams are psychological garbage, from which the body is freed as if from ballast.

A significant breakthrough in this issue has been achieved by neurophysiologists and psychologists. According to scientists, people constantly dream because the brain does not completely rest, but continues to analyze previous events. An interesting idea is the role of dreams as a factor that cements impressions for their subsequent extraction from the recesses of memory.

Dreaming about the same person: the position of psychology

Psychologists interpret this dream in a more “down-to-earth” way, explaining what is happening as follows:

1. Incomplete gestalt. Perhaps you and this person have unclear questions and relationships that torment your consciousness and are embodied in dreams. 2. Your dreams are influenced by your thoughts. If you often think about this person in reality, then do not be alarmed by his appearance in a dream. 3. Unmet needs. People often dream about their ex or desired love/sexual partners.

Whatever the explanation for the appearance of the same person in your dreams, it is worth finding out what you need to do so that he stops disturbing your night's rest.

The role of emotional perception

It is difficult to disagree with the statement that the plot of a dream is directly related to the psycho-emotional state in which a person goes to bed. Stress at work, conflicts at home, and anxiety can result in a dream into an endless labyrinth of confusing rooms, constant problem solving, scary visions or an awkward sleeping position.

The experiences and emotions experienced by a person in reality are extrapolated to night visions. Thus, being in a depressed state, a person in dreams sees the people around him as sad and despondent, and with his own aggression – angry and unkind.

If the dreams are light, joyful, and the people in the dreams are happy and smiling, it means that the person is in spiritual harmony and has a positive perception of the world.

Frequently dreaming is completely normal. However, regular nightly, emotionally charged dreams exhaust a person. And then his main desire, no matter how strange it may seem, is to stop dreaming and sleep at least one night without a “silent movie.”

Of course, people are primarily bothered by frequent bad and nightmare dreams, which they want to get rid of. But the solution to every problem lies in the reasons for its occurrence.

Continuum of repetition

Geraldine Lewa / unsplash.com

The concept belongs to William Domhoff, an American researcher and psychologist. He believes that the upper, intense level of the continuum is traumatic dreams, nightmares, which directly reproduce a traumatic experience that has already occurred in reality: a terrible event, loss, deep grief. Experts in the human psyche believe that nightmares are one of the main symptoms inherent in post-traumatic stress disorder.

The next level is recurring dreams, in which the plot can be reproduced either partially or completely. They are distinguished from traumatic dreams by the fact that they rarely directly reproduce terrible events or conflicts. Instead, such a dream reflects the traumatic experience metaphorically, expressing it through a central emotion.

Next, the continuum identifies recurring themes that are reproduced from time to time. Such dreams show the same similar situation - for example, a person is late, he is being chased, or he loses something. However, the exact content of the dream itself does not coincide and may vary: in one dream a person is late for a train, in another for an exam, in a third for an important meeting, but the event of being late itself remains common.

And the last element of the continuum of repetition and its lower level were individual details of a dream that are repeated in different dreams of one person. These include characters, any specific actions, items or objects.

Each of these dreams reflects, at its own level, an attempt by a sleeping person to resolve certain emotional problems. When the dreamer moves from an intense level of the repetition continuum to a lower level, it is a sign that his psychological state is gradually improving. For example, the content of traumatic nightmares is considered from the point of view of their change. If positive changes are visible in nightmares, then the person, according to psychologists, is gradually overcoming his traumas and difficulties.

see also

What dreams say: 16 transcripts that can help you figure out what the subconscious is saying

Factors in nightly dreams

Psychologists made an interesting conclusion after numerous studies: negative dreams are more often seen by pessimists, insecure people, and skeptics. By understanding the motive of nightmares, you can get rid of them faster.

Psychological causes of scary dreams

Worries about loved ones, pangs of conscience for a committed offense are factors that can lead to a person’s psycho-emotional instability. And a negative emotional background leads to bleak dreams. Psychological motives underlie sad dreams.

• A shock for a person, leading to nightmare visions, is the death of loved ones or relatives. Divorce, an act of violence, conflicts at work are phenomena that leave a deep psychological mark on a person’s soul. Only time will help get rid of heart wounds.
• Serious health problems worry not only during the day, but also at night the brain continues to analyze a difficult situation.
• Extreme situations with the release of large amounts of adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormone) often have a detrimental effect on the human psyche and lead to restless dreams.
• Thoughts about the upcoming important report, the fear of not completing an important task or making incorrect calculations excite the nervous system, preventing you from completely relaxing and relaxing. The result is interrupted sleep due to nightmares.
• Excessive physical and mental fatigue during the day does not guarantee sound sleep at night. On the contrary, fatigue often causes insomnia or bad dreams.
• Family scandals and showdowns, especially in the evening, are an additional reason for negative visions.
• Watching thrillers or programs with traumatic plots before bed is undesirable for impressionable people.

The saying “We all come from childhood” is filled with deep meaning, because childhood impressions are reinforced for life. In the same way, psychological traumas received at an early age are temporarily relegated to the corners of the subconscious, and over time they can transform into nightmares.

Physical and esoteric causes of negative dreams

Daily unpleasant night dreams do not allow a person to fully rest, which harms the body. But if in order to eliminate psychological causes it is important to learn to control one’s own nerves, then some of the physiological factors are completely removable.

• Scary dreams are often caused by a painful condition with a high fever.
• Diseases of the cardiovascular system and asthma, leading to impaired respiratory function, are often accompanied at night by visions of suffocation.
• Overeating leads to sleep disorders. The discomfort of resting with a full stomach is reflected in bad dreams.
• The cause of nightmares lies in alcohol abuse and smoking, which leads to vasospasm.
• Side effects when taking a group of medications: antidepressants, barbiturates, tranquilizers are expressed in nighttime disturbances and nightmares.
• Failure to comply with sleep hygiene: stuffy, stale air, uncomfortable bed, extraneous noise, bright light affect the subjects of dreams. External stimuli, influencing the subconscious, build negative images and situations in night dreams.

The original explanation for nightmares is given by esoteric parapsychologists. If a person was in a negative situation during the day: sad, angry, offended, and when communicating with other people he was recharged by someone else’s energy, then his astral energy increases.

The person himself becomes a beacon for hostile entities in the astral world who need energy recharge. “Hungry spirits,” as Tibetan monks call them, often hide in the souls of the dead. To help attach to a person’s luminous astral body is the main task of the entities. At the moment of attachment (sometimes at this time the person shudders sharply) a nightmare vision occurs.

What happens if you don't sleep

People who are constantly lacking sleep, at a minimum, have a weakened immune system, are more prone to cardiovascular diseases and often have metabolic problems.

Lack of sleep for more than 2 days is fraught not only with terrible health, but also with clouding of consciousness, for example, in the form of hallucinations.

A week without sleep means almost guaranteed hallucinations (visual and auditory), paranoia, lack of coherent speech, a significant decrease in thought processes and severe wear and tear on all body systems.

If you don’t sleep for 10 days or more, you can easily lose your mind and die.

How to stop having bad dreams

If the causes of nightmares every night are determined, then you need to find ways to get rid of them. A labor-intensive but effective method is working on yourself.

1. After analyzing the dream, turn on your imagination and turn an alarming situation into a comical one. Come up with a scenario in which monsters will no longer frighten, but will become ridiculous and funny.
2. Try to depict the dream on paper. The man may not be an artist, but he is capable of drawing frightening visions. Then burn the creation and, imagining that you are parting with the negative, scatter the ashes on the street.
3. Every person has some phobias. And if you focus on them, subconsciously wait for the development of frightening situations, then the condition for the formation of nightmares is obvious. We need to unlearn fantasizing and predicting non-existent moments.
4. Keep a dream diary in which to describe the “movie” you saw at night. From the cycle of nightmares, a logical chain of plot lines will be built in the subconscious.
5. If traumatic night situations are a consequence of real conflicts and stress, then in order to avoid nightmares, you need to take steps to resolve them in reality.

If you cannot cope with nightmare dreams on your own, then in order for the obsession to stop, you will need the help of a psychologist.

Recommendations for insomnia aimed at relaxing the body are also suitable for frequent nightmares.

1. An evening aroma bath or aroma lamp in the bedroom with relaxing essential oils will have a calming effect.
2. Tea with soothing infusions, a spoonful of honey with a glass of warm milk will set the body up for peaceful rest.
3. Ventilating the bedroom during the day and in the evening will certainly create a comfortable microclimate in the room.
4. Sleeping linen and bedding are allowed from natural fabrics - in synthetics the body does not breathe and does not rest.
5. Instead of watching TV before bed, it is better to read a beautiful love story, a romantic novel, that is, the brain should not be overloaded, much less traumatized by negative content.
6. Computer games are contraindicated before immersing yourself in the arms of Morpheus; moreover, the glow of the screen has a destructive effect on melatonin, the main sleep hormone.
7. Take your last snack no later than 2-3 hours before your dream. And do not abuse fatty and spicy foods at dinner.
8. Try to fall asleep before midnight (ideally at 10 p.m.), because sleep during this period of time is the most productive and beneficial.

Particular attention should be paid to children's complaints. Often the root of children's nightmares lies in family conflicts, acts of child abuse both in the family and in social groups. Children should not read scary fairy tales with monsters and other scary characters at night. If smooth, respectful relationships reign in the family, and the child feels that he is loved and surrounded by care, then children's night fears disappear without a trace with age.

Every person can have bad, scary dreams. However, if they are repeated with enviable consistency, then two tasks are at stake. The first is to find the cause of the negative phenomenon, and the second is to develop a healthy psyche, increase stress resistance, and get rid of bad habits. And then you can forget about nightmares forever.