I have been having these really freaky nightmares lately. They’ve been happening like every night, several times a night for close to a week now. There’s this one in particular where I witness a woman being hit by a car that really bothers me. I can’t figure out what’s been causing these dreams. I’ve heard that stress can cause bad dreams, but I can’t think of any major stress in my life. I have a good home life, school’s not bad, I don’t have friend issues, I can’t think of anything stressful. I’ve tried changing my sleeping habits (going to bed earlier/later, sleeping with a night light, etc.), but that doesn’t help either. Do you have any idea how I can get rid of these freaky dreams?

Recurring dreams and nightmares often mean that there’s some kind of stress or trauma going on in your life that needs to be addressed. But if you’re not particularly stressed out or anything, it’s probably safe to say it’s just one of those random, nonsensical dreams. We dream while we’re in REM sleep, which is also when our brains typically process and organize our short-term memories – some get saved as long-term memories, and some get discarded. It could be something as simple as you saw a car crash on TV or in a movie and that image just popped up as your brain was processing its memories. Then the fact that it’s weighing on your mind so much may be the reason it’s recurring.

One way to help nightmares is to go to sleep visualizing a happy ending for the scenario. If you keep dreaming that a woman gets hit by a car, replay it in your mind where she’s like some kind of rubber superhero and just jumps up and walks away like nothing ever happened. Make it comical. Once you make it so that it’s no longer disturbing to you, it’ll likely disappear.

 

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