Nightmares – Nightmare Dreams

What Is a Nightmare:

A nightmare is distressing dream that brings on feelings of anxiety,  fear and panic  during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.  Nightmares can happen to anyone at any given time of their lives that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness.  Nightmares can occur from stress, spicy foods, alcohol, drugs and bad diet.  Recurring nightmares on the other hand are caused by repressed feelings or events in ones life that have been ignored.  If left unattended it would be equivalent as hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock, it would come back sooner or later.  Recurring nightmares can stop once the ongoing issue is addressed in ones life.

Major Causes Attributed to Nightmares:

Drugs -  If you habitually take drugs, or a recovering drug addict you will be more prone to nightmares or night terrors. Drug addicts experience  nightmares until the addiction wears off.

Night Snacks -  You wouldn’t think what you ate before bed would cause a nightmare.  When you eat any food that is high in protein or sugar you chances are more en heightened to experience a nightmare.  The reason behind this is your body is burning energy at a fast rate which can increase metabolism and signal the brain to be more active.  Foods such as cheese have been known to make your dreams more vivid.

Antidepressants – Antidepressants can cause very vivid nightmares in the early stages.

Psychological:  People who suffer from depression are more likely to experience nightmares.

Sleep Deprivation: Sleep deprivation is one of the major causes of nightmares.  Reasons for lack of sleep include work, stress or depression.  Sleep Apnea and Restless Leg Syndrome can also contribute to nightmares.  If you are suffering from lack of sleep we recommend you to consult your doctor.

Other Causes of Nightmares Include:

-  Experienced a death of a loved on or somebody close to you
- Quitting smoking, alcohol or going on the patch
- Consuming large amount of alcohol in blood stream
- Battling a illness
- Having a Bad reaction to drugs or withdrawal
- Not dealing with an on going problems in your life
- High volumes of stress and anxiety
- Trauma from witnessing violence

How To Stop Your Nightmares:

Understanding what underlining factors that might be causing your nightmares by examining your lifestyle.  Has there been a build up of stress lately?  Have you been taking any drugs that might be affecting your sleep?  Analyzing what you nightmare means helps figure out what problems in your life you need to tackle.  If you sign up at our dream dictionary forum you would be able to get your nightmare dream analyzed for free.

Tips On How To Stop Nightmares:

Relaxing -  Taking the time to relax before you go to bed is a start. You can do Yoga and breathing exercises 10 minutes before going to bed every night.  Listening  to relaxing soothing music during sleep calms your whole mental being.

Analyze Your Nightmare – There is not much you can do when you just had a nightmare, though paying attention to the symbols in them will give you a better understanding on what your unconscious is hinting at.  Keeping a dream journal helps you remember the dream in more detail.  Find out and post what your nightmare means at our Dream Dictionary Nightmare Forum.

Lucid Dreaming – If you learn how to control your dream setting is a start.  Learning how to lucid dream is not that easy but once you get the hang of it you can transform a scary dream to your own private Idaho.

Health -  Taking good care of your body goes a long way.  Eating healthy has more benefits then just feeling well.  You will experience peaceful sleeps and less snoring.  This in turn will help cut your chances of nightmares.

Meditate – Meditate 5 minutes before going to bed might help you improve your sleep patterns.

Common Nightmares:

Falling Nightmares – Falling nightmare dreams are a common. The sleeper usually wakes up before they hit the ground.
Teeth Nightmares – Teeth dreams are also classified as a nightmare. Loosing or your teeth falling out can be scary, but it usually relates to getting old and stress in your life.
Exam / Test Nightmares – These dreams are common among kids in there adolescence
Chased Nightmares – Being chased is classified as a nightmare and quite common in dreamers.

Nightmares can be stopped once you get to the root of the problem.  At Dream Dictionary we have a new forum where you and others can interact and discuss your nightmare dreams where you can find out the cause of it.   Have a look below at our fast and growing dream forum community too see some nightmare dreams.

Forum Nightmare Dreams: (post your nightmare dreams click here)

This last week I’ve had a similar nightmare. I can’t say they’re the same….
Every so often I have a dream where there is a texas chainsaw massacre type guy chasing….
It’s been puzzling me for a very long time. Last night I had a dream that..
So all I can remember is that my sister disappears and i’m left with Joe and Nana…..
So I’ve been having these dreams that all take place in the same area involving the same people (who all but 1 I’ve never seen in real life)…..
Last night I dreamt that someone I knew was killed outside my school and dumped in a lake. I don’t know him
I have this dream almost every night and it’s basically the same. I’m stuck in this room, it’s pitch black with no windows or doors….
Last night I woke up at 3:20 am from this dream or nightmare. I am still very confused by it…..
So I’ve been having this dream that takes place at my house and it’s always at night and it was about this woman with dark

Night Terror Vs Nightmare:

There is a big misconception between nightmares and night terrors being the same thing.  Even though they possess similar qualities they are totally different.  A night terror will occur the first couple hours of sleep which they experience feelings of dread but are not dreaming.  Generally when someone wakes up and startled by a night terror they don’t remember there dream.  Night terrors are more common with young kids between the ages of 7 to 12.  When the sleeper is experiencing a “night terror” he/she would have trouble awaking from sleep.  Night terrors are far more dramatic than nightmares and is accompanied by yelling, screaming and kicking during sleep.

Nightmares tend to be more vivid because we usually get them during REM sleep.  REM sleep happens in different stages usually towards the end of the sleep cycle, that’s why we are able to remember our nightmares in full detail.

Nightmares With Children:

Believe it or not nightmares are more common with children than adults.  Roughly around one quarter of children have at least one scary dream or nightmare a week.  Scary dreams start to occur around 2 to 3 years of age for a children.  By the time they reach the age of 6 they start to experience full on nightmares.  Around the ages 10 and up the nightmares tend to subside and become less and less vivid.  Children’s nightmares usually involve frightening situations and events that involve them and people close to them in it.  The types of nightmares they experience are images bizarre events or the typical “monster or ghosts” theme.  Children are generally quite during their nightmare and hardly move around like most adults.

How to Stop Nightmares With Children:

Unfortunately there is no cure to stop your child from having nightmares,  though they can be prevented by using techniques that we provided below.  Studies have proved that nightmares with kids are genetic and passed down from either member of the family.

Take Control:

• Play relaxing music for your child though out the night
• Have them stay away from junk food and high sugar drinks
• Train them to control their dreams.  Tell your child what to day to monsters in the nightmare.
• Read them a nice book and keep positive thoughts in their head before bed.
• Talk to your kids and ask them what are there greatest fears and tackle them.