Banishing negative dreams

[Whitacre_Girl]

Do any of you have helpful ideas for banishing negative dreams? I’ve been having dreams I don’t want that are seemingly random, but not necessarily nightmares.

 

[SonCatcher]

Perhaps there is an issue of shame?

You should probably see a counselor or spiritual director to help you through the issues.

 

[Bookcat]

Just don’t give em any thought…

Usually dreams are all sorts of random things…

 

[LittleMother]

I would bless myself with Holy Water before going to sleep

 

[yosephdaviyd]

Do any of you have helpful ideas for banishing negative dreams? I’ve been having dreams I don’t want that are seemingly random, but not necessarily nightmares.

It is always good to remember that we are mind/body/soul - that is the whole human person. Therefore, the condition of one part always affects the other three and through the examination of the parts we can always know some things about the condition of soul’s relationship with the Spirit of God. That is, just as the physical is a mirror of what is happening on the inside - the subconscious has a lot to tell us about what is going on with our conscious state.

So rather than banishing your dreams, how about try discerning THROUGH them. What is really going on in your subconscious state and why?
**
I have a story for you.** There was a man who came home one day and went upstairs to his bedroom and there was a naked woman in his bed who wasn’t his wife, so he immediately slammed the door shut and ran downstairs. Three minutes later he went back upstairs to his room, opened the door again and she was still there, so he slammed the door again and went flying down the steps. One hour later he goes back up to the room - same woman -same lack of clothes - man does the same thing.

Indeed, it is a good thing to flee from sin and temptation, but it is a much better thing to start asking yourself some questions, like why is that woman in my room - how did she get there, and dog-nabbit, what is my wife doing to say about all
this when she comes home.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

It is always good to remember that we are mind/body/soul - that is the whole human person. Therefore, the condition of one part always affects the other three and through the examination of the parts we can always know some things about the condition of soul’s relationship with the Spirit of God. That is, just as the physical is a mirror of what is happening on the inside - the subconscious has a lot to tell us about what is going on with our conscious state.

So rather than banishing your dreams, how about try discerning THROUGH them. What is really going on in your subconscious state and why?
**
I have a story for you.** There was a man who came home one day and went upstairs to his bedroom and there was a naked woman in his bed who wasn’t his wife, so he immediately slammed the door shut and ran downstairs. Three minutes later he went back upstairs to his room, opened the door again and she was still there, so he slammed the door again and went flying down the steps. One hour later he goes back up to the room - same woman -same lack of clothes - man does the same thing.

Indeed, it is a good thing to flee from sin and temptation, but it is a much better thing to start asking yourself some questions, like why is that woman in my room - how did she get there, and dog-nabbit, what is my wife doing to say about all
this when she comes home.

This is very helpful, I agree. The dreams aren’t “sinful” per se, but rather just about a rather annoying subject matter. I will have to really dig in to why I’m having the dream and try to work that out I guess.

 

[DexUK]

Try changing your habits before bedtime perhaps? That might set you up differently before you fall asleep and thereby change the nature of the dreams you have.

Read a book, listen to music, have a warm milky drink, say your prayers, meditate on a particular concept, etc.

Also you could alter the conditions in which you sleep a little. Add or remove pillows, change the temperature in your room if you can or the ventilation. All of these will have minor physiological effects that might make a difference to your dream-state.

Who knows - there may even be something in the ‘old wives tales’ about what you eat before bed, so have a think about altering what or when you eat.

If nothing else it’ll give you something practical to keep trying and ward off any latent depression on the matter.

 

[Holly3278]

Well, perhaps you could pray the Rosary before going to sleep or you could say the Saint Michael the Archangel spiritual warfare prayer before going to sleep? Or, you could simply ask Jesus and your Guardian Angel to protect you from such dreams as you sleep.

 

[DexUK]

Indeed. If you wish to deepen your prayer life, take a look at www.universalis.com which has more or less all of the Liturgy of the Hours online, including Night Prayer. That’s always a good way to end the day if you’re so inclined.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

Indeed. If you wish to deepen your prayer life, take a look at www.universalis.com which has more or less all of the Liturgy of the Hours online, including Night Prayer. That’s always a good way to end the day if you’re so inclined.

Thank you both for the tips. I actually pray a lot just before bed, and do lots of mental-imaging. I always imagine myself in a very relaxing place, or doing something I love (like horseback riding) with Jesus, and I just talk to him about my day. It helped me with nightmares, thank goodness. Now I just gotta nip the annoying dreams in the hiney. lol

 

[roveau]

I sypathise with you. I have a recurrent annoying dream where I am with a set of really nice people (could be colleages, social, out on a group trip or whatever) but the thing is no-one will talk to me or will try to avoid me, no-one wants to sit next to me at dinner. I feel pretty terrible about it in my dream.

This doesn’t happen to me in real life but I wonder why I get that dream so often. I must be secretly needy - hahaha.

Anyway. An old trick I had when I used to have nightmares was to actually review those types of nightmares just before I fell asleep… I found I never had nightmares then. I know that goes against what you would think but it worked for me. These days when I do have a terrifying nightmare it is nearly always the case that I am too hot or too cold in bed. The brain was merely using the nightmare to wake me up so I could do something about being too hot or too cold.

By the way, I always pray before going to bed too.

 

[Thyme]

I know we should also try to solve the direct problem directly, but I used to have nightmares and be scared of sleeping. Every night I prayed to God (and still do) that He would protect me and stop me being scared. It has been almost two years since my first request and I am yet to have a nightmare.

This is my testimony that God helps people who turn to Him with this sort of problem and I hope that it may give you faith to keep asking Him.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

Thanks guys for the support.

I actually have several recurring dreams that are annoying me. Probably the two biggest ones are one dream where my teeth either fall out and regrow only to fall out again, or they shatter, or dissolve. I have it so often that in my dream I tell myself “it’s okay, they’ll come back”

The other one is even though I’ve been happily married to a wonderful man, I keep dreaming about this guy I dated in high school for like a month who was total bad news. It’s just as annoying as the teeth dream.