Lately, I've been having a lot of nightmares and I'm exactly sure why so I started to do some research. I started to look reasons why, and those are pretty boring but I found an interesting article on ABC on how to combat nightmares and I was intrigued.Scientifically there is a difference between a bad dream and a nightmare: a nightmare wakes up in all sweaty panicked in the middle of the night, while a bad dream you remember in the morning, but you sleep the whole night through.
Since dreams are "emotional thermostats" (so says the article), bad dreams can be a good thing - bringing things to your attention that may have been hidden, but nightmares can be a sign of too much stress.
According to Ross Levin, a psychologist, if you have a recurring nightmare, the patient needs to relive the dream while they are awakes so that they can rescript it and hopefully change it forever.
For information on changing dreams and controlling your dreams, check out my post on lucid dreams.
I find this all very fascinating - the idea that you are in control of your dreams and thus, your subconscious to some degree.
