How to Prevent Anxiety Dreams

Anxiety dreams is a term that describes nightmares due to negative feelings that exist within oneself, for example those caused by mental health problems or stress. This dream can make a person feel worried all day long and even become afraid of bad things that might happen. Then, how to prevent anxiety dreams? Check out the explanation here.

Dreams are images or stories created by the brain when a person is sleeping. Dreams can sometimes be fun stories. However, sometimes dreams can also feel gripping or scary so that when you wake up it can make the person experiencing it feel anxious.

Dreams that make you feel are called anxiety dreams. Examples of anxiety dreams that commonly occur are dreams of being late for an event, dreams of being the center of attention, or dreams of running on and on without a destination.

Cause of Anxiety Dreams

The cause of anxiety dreams in general is due to experiencing stress or anxiety disorders. Someone who has a history of trauma or experiences something that disturbs the mind often experiences anxiety dreams.

Apart from mental health disorders, those who have insomnia, are addicted to illegal drugs, and like to drink excessive alcohol can also experience anxiety dreams.

Please note that while sleeping the brain is still actively working. One of the activities the brain performs during sleep is assembling the memories and sensations stored in the brain into a story that you see as a dream.

Several studies say that dreams are a way to process or release pent-up emotions all day. So it's no wonder that someone who has mental health disorders or is over thinking about a problem that worries them will be more prone to experiencing anxiety dreams.

The fear that is felt and thought anxious that is buried all day long will be processed by the brain into scary stories, causing scary anxiety dreams.

How to Prevent Anxiety Dreams

Usually the worries from anxiety dreams will continue throughout the day until they can interfere with daily activities. In fact, someone who experiences anxiety dreams can feel afraid if the things he dreams of will actually come true.

There are several simple steps you can take to avoid experiencing anxiety dreams, as well as relieve the stress you are experiencing. The steps you need to take include:

• Before going to bed, take 1 hour to relax and do activities you like, for example listening to music, reading books, meditating, or taking a bath.
• Putting all the complaints in the diary so that the burden on the mind can be reduced, the mood will improve, and the mind will become more relaxed before going to sleep soundly.
• It's best to avoid activities that can cause you to think a lot, for example checking financial expenses or maybe looking at social media which can make you compare your life with others so that it will trigger feelings of insecurity.

If in the middle of the night you wake up because of an anxiety dream and feel like you can't go back to sleep, don't force yourself to close your eyes and stay in bed. That's because forcing sleep will only make you feel irritated and frustrated because you can't fall back asleep.

You should get out of bed and try walking around the house to calm down. You can also take a warm bath or do a boring activity, for example reading a thick literary book that can trigger sleepiness until you fall back asleep.

You can check your phone or look at the clock, but don't be constantly. After checking the time, put down the phone and calm your mind. It should be noted that spending a lot of time when you wake up at night can actually trigger feelings of irritation and anxiety because you feel that you have wasted time.

Anxiety dreams can interfere with your daily activities and worsen your mental health condition. Therefore, you can do how to prevent anxiety dreams above. Besides that, if you wake up in the middle of the night because of anxiety dreams, try to apply ways to deal with stress. If you have applied the methods above but you still often experience anxiety dreams, you should immediately consult a psychologist or psychiatrist to get the best advice and treatment according to your mental health condition.