What Causes Nightmares
WHAT CAUSES NIGHTMARES
// How to get rid nightmares //
What causes nightmares and how do I get over them?
My whole life I’ve dreamt every night, even multiple times a night. Unfortunately for me, all of my dreams were demonic and extremely lucid. The night terrors
were so bad that from the ages of five to twenty-four there were many nights I could barely sleep. Many times, I would awake physically trembling so much that I couldn't get out of bed or even move. It's one thing to have these types of dreams when you are child but when you are an adult and you are still losing sleep because of them, I knew something was off. But what was it?
Why would I have such tormenting dreams? Did I do something wrong at four years old
or twenty-five years old to deserve them? Did God just not like me?
As I began the journey of why me
I ran across many blogs, scriptures, and psychologists that explained a bit about the origins of dreams. I even share some of that research in my book, Revive the Night and in my blog, Dream Types. Dream Types is extremely helpful and gives you a great foundational base, but it never did fully satisfy the resounding cry of my heart. The cry originated from a feeling of being orphaned by a God who I thought would protect me. The cry was a feeling of hopelessness that stemmed from the belief that this was just the cards I was dealt and there was no changing them.
As I began the journey of addressing this cry I noticed a pattern. All of the heart cries stemmed from some false beliefs. Some of them entered through sitting under bad theology. Some of these bad beliefs entered through hurts and woundings that life dealt. But no matter their origin I began seeing the pattern of them not only affecting my relationship with God, but also my relationship with others and the night. Then, overtime, as I started adjusting some of these beliefs I noticed my dreams became dramatically better.
I expound much more extensively on this topic in my book, Revive the Night, but for this article, I want to share a small excerpt from chapter two, Basics of Belief.
In 2009, a five-page article came out in Time Magazine called, “The Biology of Belief,” in which there were some revolutionary biological findings on the power of belief. Although a number of professionals were quoted, for the sake of time, I will highlight Dr. Gail Ironson’s findings, Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Miami, who studies HIV and religious belief.
“Here’s what’s surprising: a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that faith may indeed bring us health. People who attend religious services do have a lower risk of dying in any one year than people who don’t attend. People who believe in a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness than people who believe in a punitive God. No less a killer than AIDS will back off at least a bit when it’s hit with a double-barreled blast of belief. “Even accounting for medications.” [1]
This research is beautiful. It scientifically documents and articulates the power of beliefs
and, even more so, beliefs about God. Think of it this way; everything in life flows from your belief system and view of God. Usually when I enter a building, I don’t duck and nervously walk around expecting the walls to come down. I don’t, because consciously or not, I believe the makers of the building love me enough to have done a good job and to have my best interest in mind. Even though I’ve never met the architects and builders, I trust them. Therefore, my belief impacts the way I walk through each building I encounter.
Now, if I believed the makers of my house were out to get me and punish me, I would probably interact with my house a bit differently. With this belief system, I would feel unsafe and insecure. Enjoying my home would be hard, and my sleep and dreams would be even less enjoyable.
What I just illustrated is a part of what the research in Time Magazine was finding. In the first scenario, I trusted the love of my maker and so my emotional state and well-being reflected that belief system. In the second scenario, I believed the maker of my home was vindictive and punitive, as the article described. Under these conditions stress is perpetual and sleeplessness increases, which are both perfect breeding grounds for sickness, bad dreams, and much more of life’s woes. Your health, quite literally, calibrates to who you say God is. Who is God to you? Is He loving or punitive?
As I began addressing this belief about God, I noticed that my dreams began reflecting my view of Him. If I thought God was angry and distant I noticed that my dreams began personifying that belief. It was hard at first because I was still having bad dreams. But as I embraced the notion of a Father who loved me through my mess, I noticed my dreams began following suit. During this process, I have had hundreds of God dreams and my demonic dreams / nightmares went from several a night to just several a year. Behind every bad dream is a bad belief fueling it.
Sweet dreams.
Thank you so much for reading our blog — PLEASE LET US KNOW OTHER TOPICS YOU WANT US TO WRITE ABOUT BY COMMENTING BELOW!!!
Footnotes:
[1] Jeffrey Kluger, The Biology of Belief, Time Magazine. (Thursday Feb. 12, 2009) Copyright 2009, Time Inc.
Get the books that started it all.
Learn how to stop nightmares; Receive answers to where dreams come from; Get tips on how to have God dreams; Discover the truth behind dream interpretation; Get real dreams to practice your skills on; Get questions to take you more in-depth; Experience God, don’t just read about Him!
