The therapist explained why people have recurring dreams

The psychotherapist A. Vakula told why the same dream can happen every night.

Researchers agree that dream plots help to process the experience gained during the waking period. Thanks to dreams, we keep emotions under control and adapt to stressful situations.

According to the Austrian psychotherapist Z. According to Freud, dreams represent things that we have pushed into the unconscious, our suppressed and hidden desires.

Recurring dreams sometimes indicate mental illness. With generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, OCD, the frequency of such dreams increases.

Another reason is metaphorical reflections of human experiences. For example, dreams of natural disasters occur after injuries or abuse. They reflect the fear, panic and helplessness that a person has experienced in reality.

According to Vakula, with recurring dreams, it is necessary to pay attention to the area of life that causes anxiety. As soon as the anxiety goes away, the dream will stop repeating itself.

Recurring dreams can indicate problems that we are unaware of. In such situations, it is recommended to keep a dream diary. During the analysis of records for a long period, you can find the root cause of the alarm. It probably makes sense to show these notes to a therapist or discuss them with someone close to you. According to Vakula, speaking reduces stress levels.

The next way to get rid of nightmares is to rehearse a dream. In the evening, you need to remember the nightmare in detail and "rewrite" its "plot" so that everything ends well. Before falling asleep, you should wish yourself to see the same dream, but with a different ending.