Hi, everyone-I have a problem. Every night, normally without fail, I have nightmares. I've done this since I was a child. They're not just boogie man nightmares, either. They're bad enough that my eyes have evidence in the morning that I've been crying. If anyone knows of something I can do, I'd welcome suggestions.

Thanks and hugs-

Hi, Happy
I am sure you will get different suggestions on this but it seems to me that dreams / nightmares are a result of unfinished business. The brain is attempting to finish or complete something. Have you tried journaling? It might help to empty the conscious and subconscious of those things that are cluttering up your sleep time. Just begin to write down whatever comes to mind--feelings, the dreams, things you want to do, things you need to do etc. Hope it helps.

Mellody-Thanks!! I had not thought of doing that. I've tried journaling in the past, but didn't think about it helping my sleep. I'll have to try that tonight. Thanks again!

Happy do you remember what the nightmares are about or just feel disturbed and have red eyes in the morning. I think confronting the nightmasre is necessary. I had the same nightmare for years and it would wake me up crying snd shaking. It may sound silly here but to make it short I dreamt I was out in my car driving and went to a mall, there I lost my purse somewhere and didn't raalize it until halfway home, when I tried to go back, I could see the mall but couldn't get there and was hystrical because my whole life so to speak was in that purse, then I would wake up. Not sure why but they just stopped one night and have never returned. I think it had something to do with my husbands death but am not sure. I threw that dam purse away too....

Your welcome. It may take several times before you see any results but keep it up. I hope it helps.

Chatty, did you feel like your whole life was with your husband? He could be the purse...Seeing the store was your life as you knew it but you could not get back to it.
Just a theory.

Happy, I've had vivid dreams all my life. Most of them have been profoundly life-giving, but there have been a few horrible nightmares that remain as vivid today as they were the night they woke me up.

I agree with Mellodysmiles, most dreams appear to be our psyche's way of sorting through events, issues, images and people who have impacted on our lives throughout the day...it's as if we've been too busy to acknowledge these things, much less process them in any meaningful way. They get all jumbled up and often don't mean anything at all...just last night I had a very frightening dream of walking through a beautiful meadow, past a waterfall that turned to an incredibly powerful and beautiful avalanche of snow...but then the snow kept avalanching and eventually buried me. In all my years of dreaming, I've never actually "died" before, but I did in this one, and it did scare me. But upon reflection, a lot of the imagery in the dream could possibly relate back to last night's episode of Amazing Race...there was a beautiful volcano, precarious rope bridges, etc.

There are two things I have learned throughout all these years of dreaming: the first is to pay attention to the recurring ones. If the same basic imagery, same basic message keeps recurring over and over again, it's usually because we need to hear and learn the message that's being relayed through that recurring dream. And until we "get it", the unconscious will continue to try to break through because it knows we need that message.

The second lesson I've learned about dreams is that it is possible to step back from the dream WHILE DREAMING and ask what it's about and expect an answer...I've done that many, many times, forced myself while dreaming a disturbing dream to step back and remind my dreaming self that this is just a dream, and then to ask the dream itself (I know it sounds weird, but it works for me!) what it's about. The answer almost always makes itself known. I could write a book about the dreams I've had, some were really disturbing, but when I asked, the answers were very simple and even funny.

Another point I'll make, though it probably doesn't pertain to you, is that some drugs do cause bad dreams. Anti-depressants are notorious for causing very graphic nightmares. I'm not sure about other drugs, but even the Benlyn cold syrup that I've been taking at night for the past week is affecting my dreams. So that's also something to keep in mind, especially when dreams suddenly turn bloody and gory.

Sorry for the length...I'm notoriously long-winded...I like talking about dreams. And I guess it makes up for not having posted much in the past few weeks!

Western Bluebird, thats what I think too now after the fact, but for years was plagued by a reason for the dreams. He was my whole life for the few years we shared and when he was gone so was all my dreams and my spirit for a long long time... Happy I hope yours stop as mine did which took awhile.

Herbs can cause strange dreams too. Ginco Biloba (sp) made my dreams go crazy. I went off of it.

I wrote about dreams in my book. I had a dream many times that a private detective was handing me a red folder and saying, "This is what I found out about your husband." I would wake up before I could read what was in the folder. I took this as a sign that I needed to do some of my own detective work. I went to Superior Court Records and filled out a form with his name and social security number. The clerk handed me four files! I thought I was going to throw up reading them but now I know God was trying to warn me just how sick and evil he was!

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. Yes, Chatty-I wake up remembering what I dreamed. I won't go into all the ones I've had bc I don't want Y'ALL to have nightmares from the posts, but let me just say that they're terrible.

Dianne-Isn't it good that God works in mysterious ways, even when we're sleeping to protect us?