Do you get recurring dreams? Do you worry about a recurring nightmare? Have you ever wondered what causes them and why they happen?
In this blog, Dr Lindsay Browning explains what recurring dreams and repeated nightmares are; why they happen and what we can do to stop them. Remember to please seek help if they are significantly interrupting your sleep.
What is a recurring dream?
In its most basic form, a recurring dream is a dream that has the same content or structure (you could call it ‘the plot’) of a dream that you have had before.
Why do we get recurring dreams?
Sigmund Freud believed that dreams represented a window into your subconsciousness, giving a glimpse of your unconscious thoughts and desires. However, more modern theories about the function of dreams suggest that they are our brain’s way of encoding and storing into long term memory storage what we have experienced during the day.
Dreams are also are our brain’s way of dealing with emotional regulation – helping us to make sense of things that are difficult to think about in our normal daytime life.
There is also a psychological theory that recurring nightmares or bad dreams give us “threat simulation”, designed to help us rehearse potential threatening situations in our sleep, so that we know how to deal with them, if they were to actually happen.
When do recurring dreams happen?
Most commonly, we have recurring dreams about something that we have not fully processed or dealt with emotionally.
When people experience a trauma, they will often have repeated nightmares about the event as their brain tries to understand and deal with it.
We can also have recurring dreams about less traumatic things. They are often about topics that we may be dealing with in our waking lives, such a big upcoming meeting, exam or important public event.
Dreams act as a form of night-time therapy. Just like with counselling or therapy, you will continue to have the dreams until you have dealt with the issue that is bothering you.
We may also have recurring dreams because we have woken up before a dream has ended, and our brain has not finished processing the topic – either because we have run out of ideas in the dream or because the content of the dream is too emotive that it wakes us up in a panic, stopping the dream before its natural conclusion.
What are common themes in recurring dreams?
A 2018 study found that recurring dreams are related to distressing psychological experiences that must be processed by the individual. Therefore, recurring dreams are more likely to be around negative themes or events.
They specifically found that the most common recurring negative dream was about someone being attacked or pursued. The second most common was falling. The third was being frozen with fear. Other themes included, arriving late for something, being held captive, failing an exam and being inappropriately dressed (like being naked at work).
One of the most common positive recurring dreams involved flying.
Why do we get recurring dreams when we can’t identify a specific event or situation that has happened to us recently?
We think that some recurring dreams are designed to rehearse a potential problem that we may face in the future. Therefore, it is likely that the most common recurring dreams are topics that we feel we are most likely going to face in life.
Although there are people who say that they can interpret dreams (that the components of your dream can say something deeper about your subconsciousness), psychologists do not believe that the content of your dreams is so relevant as the emotion behind it.
So, whilst a dream’s content may not be reflective of an actual event or situation you have been involved with or witnessed, it instead reflects the associated emotions, such as anxiety, nervousness, stress or worry.
Are recurring dreams unhealthy or dangerous?
It depends what is causing them. If it is a serious emotional issue, then a recurring dream may be a signal that you need some support to overcome those feelings, or help following a traumatic event.
A nightmare or bad dream can cause us to wake up in order to stop it happening. We may wake up with a heart racing or crying as the bad dream was so scary. It can be hard to fall back to sleep again quickly after a nightmare because you’re physically very aroused and also you may be worried about falling back into the same scary dream if you go straight back to sleep again.
If people have repeated bad dreams or nightmares, they can start to have trouble sleeping. They can fear falling asleep because they don’t want to have another nightmare. This can lead to more regular problems with getting to sleep and even insomnia.
How can I stop a recurring dream?
As mentioned above, you will continue to have the dreams until you have dealt with the issue that is bothering you. It may be that once a future event (such as public speaking or travelling somewhere new) in our ‘waking life’ has passed, the recurring dream will stop.
However, if you have experienced a trauma, and are subsequently suffering from PTSD, then you may need more assistance or professional support.
If you are struggling with recurring nightmares or regular bad dreams, do get in touch.