Taming Your Nightmares
One easy step to help prevent bad dreams.
Posted May 26, 2026 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Recently, I gave a talk on dreams followed by a Q&A. I usually get the same three questions at these events:
This time, however, the entire hour of the Q&A was solely about nightmares.
What We Live, We Dream
To most people, dreaming and waking are two distinct states, almost like chapters in a book. One is real, and the other is, well, not —after all, how can we possibly think that a three-armed fish-man chasing us down the street has anything to do with our waking time? These two states are a lot closer than we think.
According to the continuity hypothesis, dreams reflect aspects of our waking time emotions and concerns (Domhoff, 2003). Over the years, numerous researchers have noted that a high percentage of dreams contain elements related to the previous day, known as day residue , or the preceding week, which is called a dream-lag effect (Grenier and colleagues, 2005).
It’s not just any part of our day that shows up in dreams, though. Dream content tends to reflect waking time concerns that are more emotional and inter-personal in nature than thoughts about the daily grist, such as schedules, finances, or work (Pesant and Zadra, 2006).
We typically don’t have dreams about the paperwork we’ll need to file three months from now. What we will dream about—and potentially have a nightmare about—are the fears, anxieties, and the emotional meaning we have attached to that task. It is the feelings that haunt us, not their practical details. And those feelings may very likely appear as a three-armed fish-man, or any other monster du jour , chasing after us.
The good news: We can use a dreaming practice to help neutralize this anxiety —and the nightmares.
Consider What You Consume, and When
Remember that mother’s phrase “you are what you eat”? Perhaps the same can be said of our dream content.
Since COVID-19 , media use has skyrocketed (Benvenuti and colleagues, 2023). We talk about media consumption, and what we are consuming comes increasingly from social media and influencers (Reuters Institute, 2025). The average daily time spent on social media worldwide in 2025 was two hours and 35 minutes (Thuy, 2025). That’s up from 90 minutes in 2012, when social media began to take hold.
Unesco’s World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development Global Report (2022/2025) describes this social media landscape as rife with hate speech, entertainment that pushes cultural and gender biases, disinformation, and polarization. Many of us consume this material all day, every day, and even immediately before nighttime sleep. This information doesn’t stay on the screen; we take it in and have a response to it. It follows that what we consume during the day, the evening, and especially, the time before bed will inform even the time we aren’t watching, listening, or seeing something online.
The themes within our media consumption do not just feature in our waking lives, but in our time asleep as well.
Creating a Technology Buffer
One of the gifts of dreams is that they can reflect aspects of ourselves we aren’t paying attention to. One example, perhaps, is noticing if we're having an uptick in nightmares.
We tend to roll from one news story to another, and intersperse these with other, emotionally provoking media content, without really registering how quickly we are shifting between them, or the effects they are having on us. Noticing we are having more nightmares might be an internal message to step back from so much media consumption, particularly before sleep.
Sleep hygiene is a trending topic these days, with many people looking to find ways to improve their sleep. According to the CDC, 39 percent of American adults aged 45-64 are not getting enough sleep (2022). They suggest turning off electronic devices 30 minutes before going to bed. I call this a technology buffer, and not only is it useful for improving sleep, but it can also clear the emotional palette to help shift the quality of our dreams.
The selective mood regulatory theory of dreaming (Kramer 1993) sees dreams as a modulating bridge between one waking experience and another. In this model, waking time affects dream content, which then affects the next day’s waking experience. This feedback loop suggests that we can intervene to shift our dreams, which will then continue to have a positive effect on our next day.
Setting aside technology 30 minutes before sleep creates a space for a new experience. Sit with a book, a friend, or a pet. Not only might you tame your nightmares, but introducing a new, simple activity that allows you to interact with others, focus, or just breathe and be, may be the first step of a larger, positive life shift.
Benvenuti, M., Arnett, J.J., & Mazzoni, E. (2023) Emerging adulthood and media use: Latest research and future directions. Journal of Media Psychology 35(5), 253-255.
CDC (2024) Fast facts: Sleep in adults. Retrieved April 27, 2026 from https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data-research/facts-stats/adults-sleep-facts-…
Domhoff, G.W. (2003) The scientific study of dreams: Neural networks, cognitive development, and content analysis. American Psychological Association: Washington, DC.
Grenier, J., Cappeliez, P., St-Onge, M., Vachon, J., Vinette, S., Roussy, F., Mercier, P., Lortie-Lussier, M., & de Koninck, J. (2005). Temporal references in dreams and autobiographical memory. Memory & Cognition . 33 (2), 280-288.
Kramer, M., 1993. The selective mood regulatory function of dreaming: an update and revision. In: Moffitt, A., Kramer, M., Hoffman, R. (Eds.), The Functions of Dreaming. State Univer- sity of New York Press, Albany, NY, pp. 139–195.
Newman, N., Arguedas, A.R., Robertson, C.T., Nielsen, R.K., & Fletcher, R. (2025) Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025. Retrieved on April 27, 2025 from https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-06/Digital_News-Report_2025.pdf
Pesant, N. & Zadra, A. (2006) Dream content and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study of the continuity hypothesis. Journal of Clinical Psychology . Vol. 62(1), 111-121.
Thuy, D. (November 19, 2025). Average daily time spent on social media worldwide 2012-2025. Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/?srsltid=AfmBOoqsGJg1xs9nRloBiKBxmqk91ioeE4trWnPiIdWQAx7IegaclMNi
Unesco World trends in freedom of expression and media development global report 2022/2025: Journalism: Shaping a world at peace. Executive summary. Retrieved April 27, 2025 from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396635
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Bonnie Buckner, Ph.D., author of The Secret Mind: Unlock the Power of Dreams to Transform Your Life , is the founder and CEO of the International Institute for Dreaming and Imagery.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.