Do you have bad dreams, whether nightmares of being chased or just those really intense, weird dreams that leave you more drained than before you went to sleep? There’s a really simple process that, when done regularly, will very nearly eradicate such dreams, leaving you sleeping like a baby.
As you probably already know, dreams are generally related in some way to events that happened or things you thought about during the day. While your mind is at rest, your subconscious starts bringing up all these little things from the day that didn’t quite get taken care of, and the conscious mind, since you are sleeping, tries to piece all these small, mostly unrelated, things together into something coherent. Since most of the stuff is not particularly related, trying to force it into something coherent can leave you with those really weird dreams.
Nightmares generally come about when one of those things that you didn’t finish during the day is particularly intense and you perceive it in a negative manner. That could be something like financial worries, or feelings of being stuck, or fear of being rejected. Pretty much any thoughts that are emotionally charged in a negative way can cause bad dreams.
The intensity of your dreams is generally determined by the intensity of the emotions that you associated with the things that you didn’t resolve during the day. If a really negatively charged event happens, or if you are feeling very strongly negative about something, you can have some very intense nightmares. Losing your job, or fearing that you are likely to do so, can result in some nasty dreams. So can having a relationship end, or the belief that it will. Anything that is that strongly charged with negative emotions can leave you in bad shape when it comes to dreaming.
So, now that you know where bad dreams come from, what can you do about it? Well, it’s actually very simple, although not always easy, to do. And it only takes about fifteen minutes.
The process is simple. Start off by finding a comfortable and quiet spot where you can be by yourself about fifteen minutes (the time it takes can vary depending on you and how intense your day was) before you go to bed. Make sure that the lights aren’t too bright, although you don’t really want it dark either… light about equivalent to a 40 watt bulb works well for most people. When finding this spot, try to avoid it being your bed, and in fact, try to find some place you can sit, rather than lay down.
Once you have your spot, let your mind start to drift. Do NOT try to control what you think about… don’t actively TRY to think about the events from the day, just let any thoughts that come up float about until they leave on their own. The same goes for emotions that come up… let them come up, float around, and drift off on their own. What you are doing is allowing your subconscious to bring up all the things it needs to bring up, but while you are awake, instead of asleep. This allows you to deal with them in a way that actually makes sense, instead of trying to piece them together into some sort of story line.
Let this continue until the flow of thoughts, feelings, and images slows down, hopefully even coming to a stop, where you reach internal quiet. If you reach this point, you will find that you have more peace throughout your life, not just more peaceful sleep. Even if you don’t quite reach the point of quiet, though, you’ll still have dealt with much of the stuff that would generally cause your bad dreams. You DO need to keep at it until your thoughts slow, though, because the surface, shallow stuff will come out first, and what you need to get rid of is the deeper stuff that only comes up once all the little stuff is dealt with.
This process will generally take about fifteen minutes, but the time can vary. If you do it regularly, especially if you do it more than just before bed, the time necessary can drop considerably. On the other hand, if you had a really eventful and stressful day, it may take longer, as you have more things to deal with. Just keep at it until your thoughts slow or stop.
One last thing… this has to be some place that you feel safe and unlikely to be interrupted. Interruptions can cause you to have to start all over again, even if it’s from someone you love, like your wife or child, as they interrupt the flow of thoughts. You also likely won’t relax enough if you expect to be interrupted, even if it doesn’t actually happen. Same goes for feeling safe… if you don’t feel safe, you won’t relax enough to let the stuff start flowing.
If you do this every day, you will essentially never have nightmares again. You’ll also find that you get better sleep, and likely even need less of it. You’ll feel better rested and more focused. With all of that waiting for you, and only costing fifteen minutes of your time, what are you waiting for?
