If you constantly dream, is it good or bad?

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Published: 02/27/2021

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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.

Why do we have prophetic dreams?

Prophetic dreams are a stumbling block and the subject of many hours of debate in the scientific community. Most people have dreams that are then repeated in reality. The problem is that we remember these dreams only after a feeling of déjà vu that appears along with some event. There are a lot of theories on this matter, but we will consider only the most popular ones.

One of the most probable hypotheses from a scientific point of view explains prophetic dreams this way: when we sleep, the brain analyzes our activities and, having enough information about our plans, habits and patterns of our behavior, the subconscious is quite capable of simulating the situation in which we will find ourselves in in the nearest future. Thus, these are not so much prophetic dreams as the correct forecast of our subconscious, “seen” by us in a dream.

Another theory says that there are no “prophetic” dreams at all, and that, having found ourselves in a situation similar to one of our dreams, we experience a feeling of déjà vu, imagining that the dream was prophetic, but the details of the dream are very difficult to remember, and we ourselves adjust them to reality.

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But there are also less scientific versions. It is believed that in a dream, the mind can leave the limits of the bodily shell and go to any point in space and time, and it is precisely the ability of consciousness to overcome time that explains prophetic dreams. Those who practice lucid dreaming set themselves the task of instantly distinguishing prophetic dreams from ordinary ones.

There are exceptions. Here, for example: a girl sees a stranger looking out the window and, waking up, finds in the dream book that this is a sign of a new acquaintance. Then, in the evening, sitting in a cafe with a friend, she really sees a handsome guy and begins to peer into him to see if this is the same stranger. The guy, noticing that the girl is making eyes at him, comes up with an offer to meet him. As a result, the girl is sure that the dream was prophetic, but is it really so? Of course not.

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.

Bad habits cause bad dreams

If you go to bed under the influence of alcohol, be prepared for nightmares. Drinking alcohol, especially in large quantities, affects the quality of night's rest. Usually alcohol causes relaxation, the person almost immediately goes into a deep phase.

But after a few hours, harmful substances are eliminated from the body. Sleep from deep becomes more and more superficial. This explains why in the second half of the night a person who has drunk alcohol sleeps worse, and by the morning he cannot sleep at all.

It is a mistake to consider alcohol a good sleeping pill. Under its influence, the standard 6 - 7 alternating cycles of deep and shallow sleep are replaced by 2 - 3. There is no question of good rest; a person wakes up exhausted and tired. The brain practically does not rest, which naturally causes nightmares during the night. Problems that arise after drinking alcohol:

sleep becomes superficial;
frequent awakenings occur;
I have bad dreams.

The main cause of nightmares is disruption of normal brain activity. Under the influence of alcohol, numerous malfunctions occur, which causes frightening visions. It doesn't matter how much you drink. Even a glass of wine once a week can affect the state of the nervous system. If you drink strong drinks, it puts a lot of stress on your body. A hangover is a reaction to poisoning from alcohol-containing products. The psyche also reacts to stress, sending you frightening pictures at night.

If alcohol consumption occurs on a regular basis (for example, on weekends, as a way to relax after a week of work), this is a serious prerequisite for the occurrence of insomnia and accompanying nightmares. Most often, a person whose brain is clouded by alcohol fumes sees in a dream a chase from which he cannot tear himself away, monsters, wild animals.

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.

Overwork and stress cause negative dreams

Stressful situations that provoke depression do not have the best effect on night's rest. It has been proven that the more problems a person has at work, school or in his personal life, the worse he sleeps. Most often, insomnia is caused by an obsessive search for a way out of the current situation. A person cannot get thoughts of how to solve a problem out of his head, even when he goes to bed.

The more you think about difficulties, the more you load your subconscious with them. It, in turn, also tries to find a way out, but demonstrates this most often through dreams.

Separately, you should consider a situation in which you have many recurring dreams. They usually talk about deep emotional experiences. A person who has recurring nightmares often cannot cope alone. He needs the support of loved ones or the help of a psychotherapist.

Night terrors occur against the background of stressful situations or depression. Excessive stress on the psyche causes various nightmares, which can vary from night to night. Sometimes the sleeper wakes up screaming or crying. A person sleeps poorly, wakes up frequently and the feeling of fatigue does not go away due to chronic lack of sleep. Lack of quality sleep prevents the body from fighting.

You should not try to get rid of bad dreams with the help of sleeping pills, you can only make the situation worse. It is allowed to use natural remedies to improve sleep. Drink infusions of soothing herbs and properly organize your sleeping area. But the main thing is to find out the reason that causes nightmares and deal with it.

Doing this on your own is quite difficult. Usually, you need the help of a professional psychotherapist to find the roots of your night fears.

You can try to find out this yourself using the following methods:

Write down everything that happened to you before the bad dreams began to appear. Read the list and think about what resonated with you the most. There's a good chance that this is what contributed to the nightmares.
Draw a picture of what you see at night. It could be a monster chasing you, a fall from a height, etc. Look carefully at the drawing, it should tell you what caused the fear.

More on the topic: What happens if you don’t sleep enough?

Having found out the roots of the problem, it is easier to begin solving it. Don't leave everything as it is, otherwise you won't be able to improve your sleep.