Taming Your Nightmares

Dreaming and waking are closely connected, with dreams reflecting waking emotions and concerns. Many dreams include elements from the previous day and show a dream-lag effect from the preceding week. Dream content more often centers on emotional and interpersonal worries than on practical daily details. Fears and anxieties attached to tasks are more likely to appear in dreams, sometimes as monsters or threatening figures. A dreaming practice can help neutralize anxiety and reduce nightmares. Shifting media consumption before sleep can also help shift the emotional content that later appears in dreams.

"To most people, dreaming and waking are two distinct states, almost like chapters in a book. One is real, and the other is, well, not -after all, how can we possibly think that a three-armed fish-man chasing us down the street has anything to do with our waking time? These two states are a lot closer than we think."

"According to the continuity hypothesis, dreams reflect aspects of our waking time emotions and concerns (Domhoff, 2003). Over the years, numerous researchers have noted that a high percentage of dreams contain elements related to the previous day, known as day residue, or the preceding week, which is called a dream-lag effect (Grenier and colleagues, 2005)."

"Dream content tends to reflect waking time concerns that are more emotional and inter-personal in nature than thoughts about the daily grist, such as schedules, finances, or work (Pesant and Zadra, 2006). We typically don't have dreams about the paperwork we'll need to file three months from now. What we will dream about-and potentially have a nightmare about-are the fears, anxieties, and the emotional meaning we have attached to that task."

"The good news: We can use a dreaming practice to help neutralize this anxiety -and the nightmares. Consider What You Consume, and "

Read at Psychology Today