dreams, what a tricky area ay!
we all have 4 to 6 dreams a night. every night. the first dream is the shortest, the last being the longest. and its usually this last one we remember. we can remember them all but its rare, thats why sometimes we remember several dreams.
the 3 to 5 hours sleep you are getting isnt allowing your body to go into whats called a deep sleep. and thats when we have our longest dream. we have some of our dreams in the REM period as someone mentioned, and then as we gradually fall into deep sleep we have our longest dream. so 3 to 5 hours isnt enough really. it is reccomended that we have between 7 and 9 hours in order to be health mentally.
whats your "going to bed" routine? are you active immediately before going to bed, if so this will make things worse becuase it takes your body and mind longer to wind down.
go tot his website somebody once recomended me on here....
www.healthjourneys.com and find a relaxation cd. try ordering it and playing it on a cd player with headphones plugged into it and into your ears. lie there doing the guided imagery she talks about, and it relaxs your body enough to allow you to fall into sleep. but go to bed early to do this, and dont worry if you fall asleep halfway through, your mind still listens to it and it is more effective when you are asleep anyway. give it a try, its worth a try.
these dreams that you speak of. you need to remember that they cannot hurt you, they are only dreams. dreams are a reflection of what goes on in our sub-concious mind, so it could be fears, aspirations, desires, loves etc. it could be ANYTHING, even something you thought of during the day. its a way of your mind processing your thoughts and fears/loves. so accept them, whatever they are. confront them and go to sleep knowing that you are safe, and this should help. the relaxation cd i was talking about helps you to focus on postive things too so it may influence your dreams.
the more often you have these dreams, the easier they will become. they sometimes contain messages and if we chose to ignore these messages for whatever reason, the dream will continue until we learn from it.
i always think people under-estimate the power of dreams. they are so important to us as a person, because they allow us to visit memories of our past safely. we are able to live out or passions for a short time. we an do anything. and they say alot about what we truly want, not what we tell ourselves we want. it shows us our true feelings about anything, so they should never be ignored. some are complex compared to others but there are messages there most of the time.
so try using relaxation techniques to sleep, and dont be afraid. and over time this will improve. plus, dont do any physical or mental activity before you go to bed, ie, dont work out or do a hard crossword etc. allow some "wind down" time. say 1 or 2 hours before bed.
let me know how it goes, and sorry for the huge post about this. i suppose i have alot to say about it lol.
simon