What Causes You To Have Nightmares Every Night?

Hey everyone, have you ever had a really bad dream? A dream so bad that it jolted you awake in a hot sweat breathing hard in the darkness? What if you had dreams like that every night? The last few nights this has been the case for me. I don't know why it's happening, but I've been finding myself waking up in paranoia. The worst thing about these dreams is the fact that they stick with you. Most people can't remember dreams after they wake up, but nightmares are like eerie scars that don't heal until a certain amount of time.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of these dreams, but I also don't mind them as much as I think most people would. I'm a horror-junkie, and I'm always looking for inspiration for a new story. So these recurring nightmares are extremely helpful for me. They're probably not healthy, but I'll let my therapist deal with that in a couple decades.

I have my own theories as to why these recurring bad dreams occur, but I decided to do some research and see if I could find some answers by actual doctors. Who knows, maybe it's possible that an understanding of what causes bad dreams could help us get rid of them. Let's try and explore that theory.

So, what are bad dreams?

Bad dreams, more commonly referred to as nightmares, are a common phenomenon, and to say the least, can leave a person anxious, fearful, paranoid, and disturbed. Most of us have had the displeasure of experiencing disturbing dreams at sometime or the other, so one can identify with the degree of panic and anxiety that a person experiences during a bad dream.

Depending on the kind of dream that it was though, varies the degree of the panic attacks. The effects that bad dreams have on an individual are not pleasant either. It can lead to a lot of stress and worry, and this can have adverse effects on a person's waking life. It's due to this that we need to look into the causes of bad dreams so we can find a way to curb their occurrence. In the next sections, I'll recount in more detail the different ways people have tried to understand how to go about controlling this recurring phenomenon.

Meaning of Bad Dreams

The phenomenon of bad dreams is quite simple to understand. When a dream evokes feelings of anxiety, fear, horror, nervousness, and/or paranoia, it's considered to be a bad dream or nightmare. When one brings psychology into the mix and the aspect of delving into one's mind to understand the phenomenon of bad dreams, that is when things become more interesting.

It is said that bad dreams signify certain aspects about a person's life that are impossible to decipher at the plain surface. The meaning and significance of bad dreams goes way deeper and is said to be the evidence of certain fears, trepidations, and traumas that a person experiences - which make way through these nightmares.

Why Do We Have Bad Dreams

So we have these bad dreams. But why do we have them? One interesting theory that needs to be mentioned here is the one that was put forth by Sigmund Freud. Freud suggested that a person's hidden fears, anxieties, and trepidations find an outlet through bad dreams. What we fear, we keep playing in our heads over and over again, which is how the subconscious mind gets a message and thus produces bad dreams.

Trauma

The next time you have a recurring bad dream, think back to the events of the day. Was there something disturbing and traumatic that happened? It's been proven that a traumatic experience(s) can lead to nightmares in a person. Trauma that is experienced due to death, accident, sexual assault, and the like can be one of the main causes of bad dreams. 

I'm pretty sure I'm free from any of those, so I can check trauma off my list of causes.

Illness

Have you ever had a high fever and then tried to sleep through it, only to be thrown into this weird in-and-out-of-conscious-and-unconscious states of mind? The occurrence of sickness and illness is something that can lead to bad dreams. Add to that the effect of sleep-inducing drugs and there is a chance that the occurrence of bad dreams will increase furthermore.

I haven't been sick in a while, but my room is unnaturally hot, so that could explain waking up in a sweat. Maybe the heat of my room cooks my body overnight into a string of horrifying fever dreams? Let's keep moving.

Negative Thinking

It has been seen that a person who constantly swirls around negative emotions and thoughts in his mind is more prone to having bad dreams. Why does that happen? This is because you are introducing those bad thoughts to your subconscious and conscious states of minds, thus forcing it to process the info and then produce dreams that stress on these thoughts. The result is bad dreams.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I try and practice positive thinking through meditation and just generally being a good person, so that can't be it. Unless watching horror movies constantly and thinking of scary stories is negative? I don't know.

Psychological Conditions

It has been seen that there are certain psychological conditions that can increase a person's chances of experiencing bad dreams. These include high levels of stress and tension, depression, and a disturbed state of mind in a person.

Now, this makes a lot more sense because of what I said in the last cause. Lots of horror in my life and thinking about that stuff. I've also been a little stressed lately about finances and stuff like that, so I can see this one being the cause for my problems.

The causes of bad dreams could be several, as I've just explained. It helps to know what these causes are because it lets us deal with the unpleasant emotions. But, along with understanding what the causes of bad dreams are, we need to also know how to stop bad dreams. Why? So that it does not lead to a more severe and destructive outcome like a nervous breakdown or depression. When one knows what is causing the bad dreams and how to stop them, it becomes easier to take the necessary steps for the purpose of curbing them and thereof having a night of pleasant dreams.

Good luck to anyone who is dealing with bad dreams on a recurring cycle.

DISCLAIMER - This blog post is for informative purposes only and does not in any way attempt to replace the advice offered by an expert on the subject. If you're worried about your mental health do not hesitate to ask a trained professional.

I'll see you all tomorrow.

Buh-bye.