How to cope with stress dreams

Sleep is one of the most critical aspects of human health and well-being. Sleep deprivation can cause fatigue, lethargy, poor cognition, or worsened symptoms of mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression, and other conditions. However, if your mental health negatively impacts your sleep, causing stress-related dreams, it may be challenging to get adequate rest. To improve your sleep, it can be essential to understand how to cope with these dreams.

What are stress dreams?

Stress dreams can refer to any dream that contains stressful, anxiety-inducing events or ideas. It can also refer to a dream caused by stress, traumatic events, or other challenging circumstances. 

While stressful dreams may vary based on individual experiences, culture, or community, they often manifest in similar themes of falling, being chased, natural disasters, or unmet personal or professional responsibilities. Stress dreams can wake you in a cold sweat, and their disturbing content may cause you to feel sad, angry, or scared. 

Why stress dreams happen

Stress dreams can be a common reaction to stressful situations and high stress levels. They can also result from stressful or traumatic incidents in the past, as your brain works to process events that have had a lasting mental and emotional impact, even if they happened a long time ago.

While some may look to sleep as a way to escape their challenges and start fresh in the morning, research suggests that sleep plays a vital role in processing the previous day's events, especially if they're emotionally charged. Dreams can sometimes be helpful, allowing the mind to reflect upon and process past events and future worries and preparing dreamers for stressful circumstances that may occur.

While these dreams might sometimes be a healthy way for the brain to cope with stress, stressful dreams can become a problem, especially when they're more vivid than usual, recurring, or happening with increasing frequency. Stress dreams can disrupt sleep, resulting in increased anxiety and decreased cognitive function as your sleep quality diminishes. Since stressful dreams are often the result of pre-existing stress and anxiety, it can result in a vicious cycle. For those going through persistent stress dreams, everyday quality of life may be impacted. 

Common stress dreams

While stress dreams vary from person to person and culture to culture, a few common threads link many stress dreams together, making them a universal phenomenon. Below are a few of these themes. 

Being naked in public 

Being naked in public is a common stress dream, often linked to social fears and fear of judgment and rejection in a social setting. In cultures where nudity is taboo, dreaming of being naked in public can signify that you are stressed about how the people around you perceive you.

Forgetting a class

Dreaming that you forgot you were enrolled in a class, only to find out on the last day when the final exam is due, can be a common stressful dream. Dreams surrounding school performance and failure may reflect concerns about performance at school or work, as well as unmet obligations and hovering deadlines.

Failing an exam

Like forgetting a class, failing an important exam can be a frequent stress dream. This dream may indicate you are overwhelmed and underprepared personally or professionally. These anxious dreams can also reflect anxiety and a lack of confidence in performing other tasks in your waking hours.

Being chased 

If you've ever dreamed that someone is chasing you and you can't escape them, no matter how far or fast you run, it could be a sign of challenges in your waking life. Dreams about escaping pursuit can indicate that you're trying to outrun a problem you believe you can't control. In addition, it can mean you have the sensation of being suffocated or controlled in a close relationship. 

Having bad teeth

While it might seem bizarre, dreaming of teeth rotting, falling out, or otherwise causing problems is one of the most common dreams. Some researchers theorize that these dreams result from grinding your teeth in your sleep, which the mind then recognizes and unconsciously incorporates into a dream. Dreams of bad teeth can also symbolize loss of control and failure.

Experiencing natural disasters

Dreams about natural disasters like floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and forest fires can reflect a pervasive fear of change and circumstances outside your control. These dreams may also be due to a traumatic event or fear of natural disasters, which can be scary whether you've experienced them or not. 

Events mirroring real-life events 

While some stress dreams can be vague or metaphorical, others may directly represent the events happening in real life that are bothering you. Stress dreams can also cause you to relive past traumas, even if they happened long ago. 

How to prevent stress dreams

While the occasional nightmare may be unavoidable, some lifestyle changes may help you reduce stress and stress dreams, including the following.  

Practice a healthy sleep routine

Getting restorative sleep starts with a proper sleep routine. Before you sleep, stay clear of the blue light emitted from phones and other screens for a few hours. In addition, refrain from lounging in bed before you're ready to fall asleep. Treat your bed like a designated sleeping zone; your mind may associate it with sleep rather than scrolling through social media or watching scary TV shows. 

If possible, try to stick to a set sleep schedule, going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day. While everyone's sleep needs differ, aim for seven to nine hours of sleep each night for the best rest. 

Reduce stressors

If you continue to have recurring stress dreams, consider what might be causing them in the waking world. If you can pinpoint the cause of your stress, you can take steps to mitigate its effect on your life. While some stress may be unavoidable, acknowledging and addressing the challenge can be the first step to preventing it. 

Minimize substance use 

When you're stressed and trying to sleep, it can be tempting to try to relax by using substances like alcohol. In addition, caffeine can seem like a positive way to offset the sleepiness you experience in the morning. While these coping mechanisms might seem temporarily effective, alcohol, caffeine, and other substances can harm sleep, resulting in severe difficulty falling asleep or waking up, unpleasant dreams, and other side effects.

If you are struggling with substance use, contact the SAMHSA National Helpline at (800) 662-4357 to receive support and resources.

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness can be a powerful technique to fight stress, excessive worry, and anxiety symptoms and reduce stressful dreams. Mindfulness can relax the mind and the body, allowing you to focus on sensations that draw awareness away from stressful thoughts and toward your senses. Mindfulness has also been shown to reduce the frequency and intensity of disturbing dreams by providing grounding and a sense of connection with your body. 

Talk to a doctor about nightmares

In some cases, nightmares may be frequent and a sign of an underlying mental illness, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When nightmares are so severe that they cause functional difficulties, some people go to a doctor to take medication. Some medications are prescribed to reduce nightmares in people with conditions like PTSD. However, consult your doctor before starting, changing, or stopping any medication or medical treatment for nightmares. 

How to cope when a stress dream occurs 

In some cases, stress dreams may be difficult to get rid of. If you're going through a challenging stage in life or live with a mental illness, you might not know how to cope with the subject matter in your dreams. Below are a few suggestions for coping with this challenge. 

Take a moment to notice your thoughts

When you awake suddenly from a stressful dream or nightmare, your heart may race, your muscles may tense up, and your mind may run wild with unpleasant thoughts. To get back to sleep, try to relax your body and mind. Unclench your muscles, take deep breaths, and guide your attention away from the stressful thoughts you experienced during the dream. You can use a guided sleep meditation online to try to get back to sleep and remain in a peaceful sleep. 

Keep a dream journal

Keeping a dream journal can be a way to track your dreams and check for patterns and associations in your unconscious thoughts. Dream journals can help you identify real-life stressors to acknowledge and address them.

Reflect on possible stresses

If you're not sure why you're having recurring stress dreams or nightmares, examine whether there are any possible stressors in your life. Stress dreams can sometimes feel like they come out of nowhere, but they're often the result of events and activities in the waking world. If you're still not sure why you're having persistent stressful dreams, a professional can help you. 

Seek professional support 

When stressful dreams profoundly impact your life, it may seem like you can't escape stress no matter where you turn. If you're unsure what to do, consider talking to a therapist online or in your area. 

Find support with stress dreams through online therapy

Online talk therapy through platforms like BetterHelp can help individuals work out the stressors in their lives, and it's proven to be an effective way to develop strategies for combatting stress. One study found that mindfulness-based therapy online was as effective as in-person therapy in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and chronic stress, which may all be causes of nightmares. 

When you work with a therapist online, you can choose between phone, video, or live chat sessions. In addition, your therapist can send you worksheets about stress, dreams, and traumatic events to help you process your experiences in more detail.