[dermald]

I'm wondering if there is a way to control dreams.

There have been many times where I would have recurring bad dreams. Usually, they were trying to tell me something. Sometimes, I would figure it out after my situation changed and the dream went away. But other times, I knew what the dream was trying to tell me, yet it would keep persisting.

Here are a few examples:

The Speeder: One time I had booked two contracts too close, and ended up speeding on the freeway, going over 110mph between cars on my motorcycle. I had the nightmare that night, where I'd constantly be going faster, the road would get more narrow, and there was nothing I could do about it. Crashing was imminent.

Analysis: For this one, I knew that my dream was trying to tell me to never do that again. Yet the dream persisted for a few months. I don't know why it went away. Maybe driving home a point?

The Changer: This is a nightmare that is relatively new, where I'll be in a room of some kind. It will have more than one door that can be used to exit the room. I'll pick one and exit the room.

The problem is that I cannot use that door to get back to the original room. In some cases, I really want to get back to that previous room for some reason, usually to talk to someone.

The rooms are ever-changing. I am never in the same room twice, and I never see the same people again. As the rooms change and the situations change, the anxiety gets higher and higher.

Analysis: I am convinced that this nightmare revolves around my current employment situation. I have been unemployed for about 15 months.

The different rooms represent companies for which I've interviewed. The different people in the rooms represent the different people with whom I've interviewed.

My concern is that this high-anxiety nightmare will continue until I land a new job. At this point, I do not foresee this happening in the near future, although it could happen next week. It's an unknown.

Question: I'm wondering if there are any techniques for controlling this type of nightmare. I've tried not doing anything job search related an hour before bed time, eating something, not eating anything, and so on.

Has anyone had any success in dealing with something like this?

[NeedHaldol]

I am occasionally a lucid dreamer. It is pretty fun.

I don't believe in dreams having any meaning on real life. The brain is just sifting through your thoughts while you rest.

Try reading something you enjoy before bed and let yourself just slip into sleep.

[Thunder Bow]

Dreams are all about your feelings. They do mirror them. They do relate to real life events. Only way to control them is to, understand the feelings that cause them.