Why do we have Recurring Dreams?

Recurring dreams can be blessings in disguise.

Although I am sure you want to stop having the same dream again and again…try to understand that these dreams are of importance to your mental well being.
Recurring dreams are significant as they point to repeated patterns of behaviour that are obviously unhealthy for you to keep repeating.

Until you recognize what it is you are repeating in your waking life the dream will continue…over and over and over again until you get it!

Dreams can repeat only for short periods of time when certain situations are occurring or they can go on for years. Generally when the particular situation ceases, i.e. you leave a job or end a relationship, then the dream can quite often cease as well.
Unless something else triggers the same emotional response in which case the dream may begin again.

Quite obviously these dreams occur when issues have not been dealt with.

Dreams will continue to use the same imagery again and again in order to try and gain closure.

These dreams can indicate that we are stuck in a rut of some sort, and are unable to move forward in some area in our lives.

Dreams will repeat as part of Post Traumatic Stress, in which there are unresolved feelings or concerns. These dreamers will relive their trauma again and again, forcing them to go through painful experiences over and over. Over time these generally lessen in frequency.Some nightmares or bad dreams can also be recurring in nature.

In many such dreams we are working through problems and attempting to find some solution for how we are approaching things in waking life. Try and find a connection between your dream, and how you respond to it with some circumstance in waking life.

Dreams that repeat over and over can bring about realizations that we can miss when we are awake.

Whether or not the dream is calling on past memories you can assume the dream is related to some aspect of your current life situation. Usually there will have been some trigger during the day to trigger the dream.

What if the recurring dream keeps recurring?

If these dreams don't let up it may be worth your while to seek assistance from a therapist who could help you change the dream through hypnosis.

However there are some things you could attempt on your own:

1. You can change a dream ending quite easily by deciding beforehand what the new ending will be. Think about your dream during the day and imagine it playing out with your new ending.

2. When you are drifting off to sleep use the power of suggestion and repeat over and over to yourself that you want “X and Y” to happen in your dream.

3. There are certain medications that can relieve recurring dreams. Anti-anxiety drugs like MAO inhibitors, a drug that represses the part of sleep in which you dream, can also suppress recurring dreams.

If changing your dream on your own doesn’t help, there are therapists with more advanced techniques that may work. And therapists may be able to help you better understand your dream meanings which in the end could mean the dream will stop.

Return from Recurring Dreams to Nightmares