It’s late at night and you’re exhausted after a long day and can’t wait to get home. You put your key in the ignition and turn, but your engine won’t turn over. Maybe it’s just a fluke - it can’t possibly be an issue. You try again…and again…and again each time to no avail. Your heart rate starts to rise as you begin to panic more about being stranded with a dead battery with not another soul in sight to help. Right when the feeling becomes too much to bear, you wake up. You’re in your own bed, you’re not stranded in the middle of nowhere, but now you’re stuck with the feeling as if you were. Well, there goes any chance of getting a good night’s sleep. 

What Are Stress Dreams?

Stress dreams are exactly what they sound like, dreams that surround unpleasant and stressful situations that cause feelings of stress, worry, and unease. Sometimes stress dreams can be conflated with nightmares, but nightmares generally have themes that are more fantastical and unbelievable that you wouldn’t see in real life, and evoke feelings of fear and terror as opposed to stress and anxiety. While both are thoroughly unpleasant to experience, it’s important to be able to tell the difference between stress dreams and nightmares in order to best address your sleep troubles. 

What Causes Stress Dreams?

Stress dreams are triggered by that: stress. When your days are spent worrying and fretting, it comes as no surprise that these same feelings would linger well into your REM cycle. Common sources of stress can include the death of a loved one, financial strain, problems at work, and health issues to name a few. These issues can work their way into your dreams such as having dreams about doing poorly at work or even being naked in public. 

External stressors are not the only ones to play a role, however, as mental trauma can also contribute to stress dreams. Conditions such as PTSD may see greater frequency and severity in stress dreams thanks to the negative emotions associated from certain memories and the high level of neurotransmitters active during REM sleep. 

The effects of stress on your sleep quality and your dreams are numerous. For example, stress may actually cause even more REM sleep (the stage in sleep where you are most likely to dream), which can result in an increase in stress dreams or nightmares. Additionally, stress can prolong the time it actually takes to fall asleep which can negatively affect your overall sleep quality and duration. 

What Can I Do About It?

Dealing with stress dreams can be, well, stressful and dealing with feelings of lethargy after getting a poor night’s sleep just adds to the sense of discomfort. When these dreams start to become more and more common, they can become overwhelming and bedtime can become the most dreaded part of the day. 

Calming your nerves before you go to bed may sound like a daunting task, but it is ultimately necessary when it comes to reducing both physical and mental stress that can manifest itself in your dreams. Meditation practices are one way to help do this. By centering yourself and becoming more aware of your body and your surroundings, you can help yourself get out of your own head and refocus your energy on something more productive such as your breathing. 

If meditation proves to be difficult, blocking out external stimuli can be a tremendous help. Utilizing a weighted sleep mask like Nodpod can help not only physically calm the mind and body through the use of Deep Touch Pressure stimulation, but it can also help block out visual stimuli such as the light from an alarm clock or even the light of day if you’re trying to get some shuteye in mid-afternoon. 

Getting your thoughts onto paper can also be a helpful tool when the thoughts troubling you are becoming too much to bear. Keeping a journal, either physical or digital, can allow you to express the thoughts and feelings you’ve found yourself ruminating on over and over and free yourself from the tension you’ve been bottling up. While starting a journal may seem like another daunting task, there is no one right way to do it and you can approach it in a way that works best for you. 

Key Takeaways 

Getting a good night’s sleep can already be a herculean task for some of us, and stress dreams certainly don’t make it any easier. If there is something in particular that you find yourself struggling with that could be impacting your dreams, addressing it directly can be helpful in aiding your troubles at night. Unfortunately, it’s not always so cut and dry. 

For those of us that struggle with stress dreams without any discernible root cause, remedying the situation may seem a little more difficult. Without a concrete problem to address, the focus shifts from the stressor(s) to how your body responds to stress. Taking the time to calm your mind and body before bed through means of meditation and journaling before bed or exercising during the day, putting your body in a greater state of calm can help calm the mind enough to keep stress dreams at bay. Utilizing tools such as the Nodpod weighted sleep mask or BODY weighted blanket can help utilize Deep Touch Pressure stimulation to help put the body and, in turn, the mind at ease. Stress and anxiety are felt differently by everyone, so it’s worth experimenting with different strategies to see what works best for you and your needs.