Why do adults and children have bad dreams every day?

Intrusive bad dreams that repeat night after night are a common symptom of an anxiety disorder. Those who struggle with the so-called VSD (vegetative-vascular dystonia, obsessive-compulsive, panic or generalized anxiety disorder) suffer from such visions.

Where there is neurosis, there are nightmares and bad dreams.

Now we will try to understand what to do if you had a bad dream. And this was not the first time I had a dream. Let's find out why this happens and how to get rid of the problem.

Why do I always have bad dreams?

Dreams pop up in our brain during every sleep. However, not everyone is able to remember them for a long time. Dreams are fragments of memories formed according to the script of your subconscious. Not everyone can consciously control their sleep. That is why the plot of dreams is often absurd and unrealistic.

The content of dreams in most cases is related to recent positive or negative moments in your life. Therefore, in many ways, bad and good dreams depend on internal experiences . For example, if you are under severe stress, this will most likely affect the quality of your sleep and result in nightmares.

Interestingly, bad dreams are associated not only with internal experiences, but also with external factors, for example, lighting in the bedroom, noise, temperature, etc. We will talk about this in more detail later.

Internal causes of poor sleep

Stress, anxiety, psychotrauma . Stressful situations that occurred the day before impair falling asleep, promote night awakenings and provoke nightmares.
Fatigue . Physical or mental stress stimulates the nervous system, which interferes with healthy sleep.
Nervous system disorders . Neuroses, schizophrenia and other similar diseases can impair sleep.
Pregnancy . Changes in hormonal levels in the body of the expectant mother contribute to the occurrence of nightmares.
Alcohol . When alcohol enters the brain, it interferes with its proper functioning. As a result, frequent consumption of strong drinks can lead to poor sleep.
Medicines . Taking certain medications interferes with restful rest. Before using medications, carefully read the instructions and consult your doctor.
Binge eating . Eating a multi-course dinner before bed can make it difficult to fall asleep and increase the risk of nightmares. The body simply does not go into a sleep state because it is “busy” digesting food.
Caffeine . Stimulates the nervous system and prevents our psyche from relaxing. The substance is found in sufficient quantities in coffee, energy drinks, and black tea. Therefore, for good sleep, avoid drinking caffeinated drinks in the afternoon.
Excessive drinking at night . Any drinks taken at night in large quantities make it difficult to fall asleep and, in general, can worsen the quality of sleep.
Diseases . Causes of poor sleep often include pathologies of the cardiovascular and nervous systems. In addition, nightmares and waking up in the night are associated with chronic pain.

What harm can bad sleep cause to a person?

Poor sleep or lack of sleep can lead to irreversible consequences. The average person needs 6 to 8 hours of sleep per day. If you don’t get enough sleep regularly, this will not only lead to mild nervous disorders and extra centimeters in the waist area for girls. But it can lead to serious health problems - heart disease, increased risk of diabetes, headaches, joint problems, blurred vision, and so on.

From lack of sleep, people begin to overeat, since a small amount of it causes appetite and also provokes the choice of higher-calorie foods.

Poor sleep also leads to poor attention. Due to drowsiness, you can miss an important moment on the road and get into an accident. Emotional instability from overwork and loss of strength may occur. Thus, a person’s productivity decreases, and the likelihood of seeing a terrible nightmare at night becomes higher.

Researchers from Harvard and Berkeley medical schools conducted an experiment in 2007 and proved that if you don't sleep enough, the emotional areas of the brain become more than 60% active. This will lead to you becoming more irritable and harmful. Which is unlikely to please the people around you.

External causes of poor sleep

Noise . Extraneous sounds reduce the depth of sleep (deep sleep). In this case, the brain cannot relax, so sleep becomes superficial and restless.
Discomfort during sleep. A hard or too soft mattress, along with an uncomfortable pillow and bedding that is unpleasant to the touch, disrupts sleep.
Light . Even low lighting in the bedroom interferes with healthy sleep. Light makes it difficult to produce melatonin, a sleep hormone that is produced in the body when it gets dark.
Unventilated bedroom . Lack of fresh air impairs brain function. The result is bad dreams.
Watching movies or reading books . The plot of book and movie thrillers can make it difficult to fall asleep, especially if you watched or read them right before bed.
Weather . For people with weather sensitivity, nightmares are associated with changes in the weather, be it an increase in air temperature or jumps in atmospheric pressure.
New place to sleep . Spending the night with relatives or, for example, in a hotel can turn into nightmares.

Why does my child constantly have bad dreams?

Family quarrels. Conflicts between mom and dad affect the child’s psyche. This in turn impairs sleep.
Fear of the dark or “monsters.” Both phobias are characteristic of preschool children, and they appear relatively often. Sometimes it is because of them that children sleep with their parents in the same room until they are 7 years old.
Changes in external conditions. Moving or visiting kindergarten or school for the first time can disrupt a child’s sleep. After all, a new unknown environment is often stressful for him.
Psychological depression. Constant reproaches against a child from parents, caregivers or teachers can easily provoke sleep disturbances. This also includes pressure from classmates or other children from the environment.
Lack of parental attention. Fear of loneliness prevents a child from sleeping well. Fear is especially pronounced if the mother constantly works and has little contact with the child.
Puberty and relationship problems. In teenagers, bad dreams are often associated with puberty. A surge of hormones and unrequited love can become prerequisites for sleep disorders.

The Origins of Children's Horror Films

A child suffers from dark night visions no less often than an adult. However, the causes of children's horror stories have their own characteristics. Most often they are based on fears and increased anxiety:

if the mother is constantly nervous, anxious, or in a neurotic disorder, this will certainly affect the children. Mom is a source of food and a sense of security, so the offspring feel her condition even without words;
the child experiences a feeling of loneliness due to the fact that relatives do not give due attention;
overprotection also overloads the child’s psyche and provokes dreams about monsters;
fear of not being able to cope, of making a mistake due to increased demands from parents;
confusion due to conflicting messages from adults: grandmother says that you need to eat more, mother scolds for being overweight, father imposes his own nutritional system, and grandfather calls for fasting and doing exercises. It is impossible to please everyone, but it is important for a child to be good in order to receive love.

A negative emotional environment in the family and toxic parents are why children often have bad dreams. As a rule, after the psychological climate changes, the children’s visions become rosy and pleasant.

I have bad dreams every night. What to do?

After waking up, realize that everything you saw was just a dream and most likely far from reality. If you wake up in the middle of the night, don't go straight to bed. Get out of bed, turn on the night light, this will help you come to your senses faster. If your partner wakes up with you, tell him about the nightmare. The words of your loved one will calm you down and after a while you will be able to fall asleep again.

Did your child have a bad dream? Hug and comfort him, offer tea with sedative herbs.

If you notice that your child is tossing and turning in bed, calm him down in a whisper, trying not to wake him up. If he doesn't calm down, wake him up and hug him. Explain that it was just a dream. You can give the child herbal tea, and then put the child to bed.

To help your baby fall asleep, read a good story or sing a lullaby. A good option would be to have your baby sleep with you in the same room or in the same bed.

Stop waiting for nightmares

It is necessary to realize that if you had a bad, scary bad dream, this does not mean that now it will always be like this.

In fact, the more you think about a bad dream during the day, the more likely you are to have it again the next night.

For people who do not have obsessive thoughts about their night visions, dreams are quickly forgotten.

But if we obsess over them, we turn the night's adventure into a daytime event. The more we think about our sleep during the day, the more energy we give it.

And sleep becomes part of our daily life experience. And at night the brain will again begin to transfer this experience into long-term memory. And this explains why the bad dream I had the day before repeats itself again. It became our real day experience. And our brain processes this experience.

But it was turned into reality neither by the Higher Powers nor by our incredible prophetic abilities, but by a banal obsession with one’s experiences.

How to get rid of bad dreams: advice from a psychologist

Nightmares are directly related to life's difficulties and inner experiences. This means that by working with your own psyche, you will be able to improve your sleep.

Exercises for bad dreams:

Describe all your dreams in a diary or smartphone notes . No matter how terrible the dream was, after waking up, write down its plot with all the details in a notepad or notes on your mobile phone. Try to understand what is written that scares you the most. Such an analysis of dreams will help you reconsider your attitude towards a situation that has deprived you of normal rest. In addition, daily record keeping will help a psychologist quickly solve the problem of poor sleep if you seek help from a specialist.
Tell your loved ones about your nightmares. When a person shares a problem with someone, he feels better. Tell those closest to you about your nighttime experiences. Tell us what's bothering you. If this doesn't help, consult a psychologist. A professional will identify your phobias and work through them with you.
Change your thinking. Think differently. Not the way you did it before. Change. A person does not develop if he does not change his thinking. Books, personal growth trainings, interest groups, etc. will help you with this. Be sure that by changing your thinking, your fears, along with nightmares, will disappear into oblivion.
Create the image of a nightmare. One of the exercises in the psychologist’s arsenal. Draw or write the scenes of your nightmares on a separate sheet of paper. Then burn or tear this piece of paper into small pieces. This approach is often effective, which is why it is included in the psychotherapy program. By the way, when playing with fire, remember fire safety.
Changing the scenario. An exercise similar to the previous one. Write or draw how you would like the bad dream to end. Come up with a good ending, get it down on paper, and visualize the happy ending in your head. This technique is also used in psychotherapy.

Do I need to see a doctor?

It is difficult to say unequivocally that your case requires the help of a specialist. If advice does not help you, and the nightmares continue, this is a reason to consult a doctor. If you can guess the reasons for the violation, then you can identify a specialist yourself. If you are experiencing daily stress, suspect depression, or are suffering from traumatic memories, you most likely need the help of a psychologist. But first you should contact a good therapist, who will prescribe tests and accurately refer you to the right specialist.

How to make bad dreams good

Avoid stress or learn to deal with it. Take a bath before bed, meditate, exercise. In other words, find an activity that will relax you.
Be positive . Positive emotions help cope with nightmares. Also, set yourself an achievable goal that inspires you and work towards it. The desire for results will charge you with positive energy and get rid of bad dreams.
Maintain a strict sleep schedule. Always go to bed and get up at the same time. Even on weekends. This will help the body “get into rhythm” and reduce stress levels in general.
Get at least 8 hours of sleep. Lack of sleep increases the body's susceptibility to stress. And if you don’t constantly get enough sleep, there is a high probability that you will only have bad dreams.
Create a ritual and stick to it before bed. In our case, a ritual is an activity after which you feel strongly drawn to sleep. Such a ritual could include reading books, taking a bath with aromatic oils, or walking near the house. Rituals will only work if you perform them daily.
Don't drink alcohol before bed. Alcohol interferes with the functioning of the brain, which results in nightmares. Therefore, if you constantly have bad dreams, you will have to give up strong drinks until your sleep normalizes.
Avoid drinking coffee or strong tea in the afternoon. Caffeine in tea or coffee stimulates the nervous system. This in turn provokes nightmares.
Relax after work. When you get home in the evening, switch to “rest mode” and don’t think about anything related to your professional activities or what upsets you.
Don't quarrel with your household. Conflicts within the home make it difficult to relax after a hard day. Be patient and don't talk about sensitive topics if you're having nightmares. Save this for later.
Create comfortable sleeping conditions. 20-30 minutes before going to bed, ventilate the bedroom, then close the curtains tightly. Remove all luminous devices from the room with the bed, get rid of extraneous sources of noise. Sleep in complete darkness, turn off the TV in the bedroom if you are going to sleep. Buy a comfortable orthopedic mattress for your weight, a pillow with neck support and bedding that is comfortable to the touch.

Write down all the bad things

One of the reasons why you regularly have bad dreams is that you fixate on negative thoughts throughout the day.

This fixation is characteristic of all neurotic patients. It is quite difficult to completely get rid of it. This requires long-term hard work on yourself. But it’s quite possible to make night visions easier and more pleasant.

To do this, before going to bed, write down all your bad thoughts. Record everything that worries you and gives you no peace. It has been proven that those obsessive thoughts that we entrust to paper begin to bother us much less.

But you should write it down on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil. And not in electronic form. This is fundamentally important.