What causes nightmares?

[Genesis]

It's something I wondered today, after waking up. I've had NOTHING but nightmares yesterday. This usually never happens. They were very vivid, and I would often wake up after one, only to fall back asleep and have another one. What do you think causes a series of nightmares?

[SiriusTraveler]

I have some theories about this as when I'v had nightmares recently I have tried to deal with them in the dream. Not only that but many features in the dream were features that I'v had before. In a way I think that nightmares can be had to be dealt with, to get rid of fears etc. I mean that the higher self, soul or whatever you want to call it, makes you have these and wants you to deal with them, to face your fears. If you have some insight about your fears chances are that you will try and deal with them in your dream, thus overcomming the fear (hopefully) or reducing the fear.
An example is when I had a nightmare the last time I subconsciously tried to deal with the fear by radiating love. Although I was crying in the dream and still was somewhat afraid, I suppressed the fear a bit by radiating love towards the source of the fear. Now this was all done in a dream, not a lucid one, but I think I did that because of the fact that in waking physical reality I want to deal with my fears. And I also know that when having a nightmare the next time I want to deal with it the same way. This thinking is like a catalyst for that behavior, in my opinion.
If we deal with the fears one after the other in our dreams we reduce our fears. I can feel this effect in physical waking reality. I am not as afraid of certain things as I were before. Either that Or my fears has gone away entirely. To get rid of fears also makes it easier to reach goals like astral projection and lucid dreaming as fears often can causes doors to be closed.
I believe that nightmares have to do with spiritual progress, more than I believed before. But perhaps that is personal, and applies to me and my path in life.

Now there is the scientific explanation to, that we have nightmares because we have innate fears that helps our evolution. They mean that by having fear of wolves, the dark etc. we naturally survive longer due to the fact that we dont stray far in the night for example. But I dont believe that so much anymore. Perhaps its a combination of both.

[IA56]

Nodding...

I think there are so many levels and all levels has it´s own explantion, the uttermost is to be so relived that you can embrace the infinity and cross the line/bridge/gate to it...

[ButterflyWoman]

I used to have nightmares very regularly, starting from early childhood. In my case, it was my own subconscious, trying to tell me something. Eventually, as I achieved healing and transformation, the nature of the dreams changed, and I rarely have nightmares now. I do still have very potent dreams that are obviously trying to tell me something, though.

An example is when I had a nightmare the last time I subconsciously tried to deal with the fear by radiating love. Although I was crying in the dream and still was somewhat afraid, I suppressed the fear a bit by radiating love towards the source of the fear. Now this was all done in a dream, not a lucid one, but I think I did that because of the fact that in waking physical reality I want to deal with my fears.

I've had remarkably similar experiences. In my case, in the dream I prayed (because that was the path I was on at that time) to disperse the fearful beings (often demons, but sometimes Nazis or other monster-type beings). I definitely think, looking back at the timeline, that it was my subconscious self telling me that it was time to deal with my inner demons, and that I COULD deal with them, no matter how scary they were.

[CFTraveler]

I believe all dreaming is an objective representation of your memories, for various reasons. Some indexing, and some exploration.
Sometimes your conscious mind has some sort of unresolved issue, a fear or a bad memory that has not been dealt with, and when you are exploring this, you become upset at the content of the fear message or memory, and it causes you to wake enough to remember it. So you remember the nightmare more likely than if it's a relaxing or bland content.
If you have a fear you haven't dealt with properly, you will more than likely continue to experience it until you face it consciously and resolve it in some way- actively think about the content, try to figure out what the reason is or the fear is about, and think of it and mull it over, until it doesn't make you upset any more. Then you more than likely will not continue to experience it.
Or at least that's my experience with nightmares.

[DarkChylde]

i've had disturbing and downright disconcerting dreams as we have all
but never in my entire life ive ever had the "classical" nightmares , ones with monsters , macarbe ,gore ,fright terror or a chase where i'm quarry with life under threat.

i count myself very very lucky in this regard

[roman67]

That’s great. You are very lucky. I have had mixed type of dreams.