[Kise]

Every time I find myself anxious, I have these vivid, disturbing dreams or nightmares. They are rarely even related to what I'm anxious about. Instead, they're on random topics, like zombies, diseases, or people dying.
They usually come in pairs, where one dream/ nightmare ends sometime between 3-4 AM and then I wake up. The second I go to sleep, another one begins. The second one doesn't go along with the first at all, but if the first one was a nightmare, the second usually is, too.
Does anyone experience this? How do you deal with it?

[Skeezyks]

I don't have this problem myself. I actually rarely remember my dreams anymore. However here are links to 4 articles, from PsychCentral's archives, that talk about nightmares & how to resolve them:

More Than a Dream: The Science Behind Nightmares | Change Your Mind, Change Your Life

How to Eliminate Recurring Nightmares

How to Have Sweet Dreams | Reaching Life Goals

The meaning of your nightmares | Unleash Your Creativity

Totally normal, anxiety dreams.

First, you need to realize that our sleep cycles have 5 stages and last about 90 minutes and then repeat until we wake up in the morning. So, if you fall asleep at 10 pm, you will go through the 5 cycles of sleep every 90 minutes until you wake up in the morning.

Having those two anxiety nightmares so close together, means you had an anxiety nightmare twice in a row, during two back-to-back sleep cycles. Totally normal.

5 Stages of Sleep: How Sleep Cycles Work | BedJet - BedJet

Anxiety nightmares can be caused by the following:

anxiety or stress during the daytime that hasn't been fully addressed by the dreamer.

medications.

health problems.

Late night eating/snacking after 8 p.m.

Sleep disorders.

Late night internet/tv/cellphone use.

Previous nights of insomnia or sleep deprivation.

The only way to deal with the nightmares like the ones you've had back to back, is to see if you had any of the above triggers before that night of sleep occurred. Because one or more them, could be the cause.

As far as those characters in your dreams, etc., the best way to interpret what they mean to YOU is to keep a dream diary, and then look around on the internet for dream dictionaries and read through different ones, until you find a dream dictionary that resonates with you.

[Kise]

Originally Posted by StreetcarBlanche

Totally normal, anxiety dreams.

First, you need to realize that our sleep cycles have 5 stages and last about 90 minutes and then repeat until we wake up in the morning. So, if you fall asleep at 10 pm, you will go through the 5 cycles of sleep every 90 minutes until you wake up in the morning.

Having those two anxiety nightmares so close together, means you had an anxiety nightmare twice in a row, during two back-to-back sleep cycles. Totally normal.

5 Stages of Sleep: How Sleep Cycles Work | BedJet - BedJet

Anxiety nightmares can be caused by the following:

anxiety or stress during the daytime that hasn't been fully addressed by the dreamer.

medications.

health problems.

Late night eating/snacking after 8 p.m.

Sleep disorders.

Late night internet/tv/cellphone use.

Previous nights of insomnia or sleep deprivation.

The only way to deal with the nightmares like the ones you've had back to back, is to see if you had any of the above triggers before that night of sleep occurred. Because one or more them, could be the cause.

As far as those characters in your dreams, etc., the best way to interpret what they mean to YOU is to keep a dream diary, and then look around on the internet for dream dictionaries and read through different ones, until you find a dream dictionary that resonates with you.

Thank you so much for this list! I definitely do a lot of those and I can try to cut down in order to get rid of the nightmares.

Peace,
Kise