Why do I always have bad dreams?

I’d guess that what’s actually happening is that the negative dreams are the only ones you’re remembering. If you don’t recall dreams easily, then perhaps only the most intense make it to your conscious mind after you awake.

Are you on any medications?

@Seelix When I do sleep it’s because of meds, plus I am on Wellbutrin and Effexor.

@tinyfaery – My sister takes Effexor (as do I) and one of the rarer side effects is incredibly vivid dreaming. She has such intense dreams that she takes trazodone at bedtime, which apparently helps. I’m not sure whether the Wellbutrin might increase that effect, but it’s possible.

It is a known effect of Effexor, though, so I’d suggest you talk to your doc specifically about the dreams; (s)he might be able to come up with something that’ll help.

Inner turmoil? My dreams are always bad or neutral, never good. And what @Seelix said about the medications.

My guess is you feel like people are either not validating you, are condescending and dismissive to you, or you feel abused in some way by someone or a situation you are in. i don’t mean someone has to be actually beating you up or raping you (God forbid) but that there are situations in your life that feel unjust and targeted at you.

Again, just a guess. I get reoccuring similar dreams when I go to doctors and theydon’t neliev I am sick and in pain, or I feel I have done a procedure that I feel was completely unnecessary and made some doctor a lot of money.

It is true those drugs can cause vivid dreaming, but the kind of dream matters I think. I don’t think the drugs really direct your dreams, just can put you into a state where you dream more, or have more sleep interruptions.

@JLeslie – For what it’s worth, my sister’s dreams (before she started on the trazodone) were very graphically violent and gory. I don’t know whether a drug can cause you to have certain types of dreams, but I do believe it’s more likely for someone to remember a vividly disturbing dream than one that’s more emotionally neutral, regardless of how vivid.

@Seelix I agree.

I am no authority on meds, but if you are on anti-depressants, I would assume that you have some emotional struggles that you are dealing with. That would explain to me why your sleeping mind is reflecting turmoil.

If you go to dreammoods.com they can really help you out. Most dreams are from the subconscious mind. Most nightmares are caused by stress, hate, fear, and trauma. If you have to many of them you may need to re-evaluate yourself and find out what the problem is.
Oh and to much caffeine and sugar can egg it on.
How long has this been going on? How many night mares? If you give me more information I can help more.

It might just be stress or anxiety. Try doing something fun and relaxing. I know this is going to sound kind of weird but try eating a bowl of bran cereal with cranberries and skim milk at least an hour before going to bed. It supposedly helps people sleep. Good Luck

The nightmares I get are when I don’t come up with thoughts, but left with an empty blank zip in my head. It usually comes up with me acting like a Villian or even a sidekick to a villian. Why is that scary? I always get killed by superheros before waking up. Maybe thinking of something that make you drone to sleep prevents the negative feelings taking over the mind, thus making the bad dreams dissappear.

I tried a low dose of Prozac for six weeks and had 4–5 nightmares each night. So I got off of it.

When I noticed my dreams always tended towards scarcity of some kind or fear, I decided to try asking for good dreams (articulate it however you like) before going to bed. They weren’t suddenly fantastical, but they did change for the better and were definitely less scary and helpless.

I hadn’t done this in a while, but I tried it tonight. One part of my dream was efficiently resolving a problem of my mom’s that would normally have been drama for drama’s sake on her part. The other was a friend of mine telling me point blank that he hated me, and I immediately retorted that I was moving out. In both cases, rather than feeling helpless or somehow deficient, I managed to be the kind of person that fixes the situation immediately and moves on, and I didn’t suffer any abuse. I just disposed of it.

That kind of response is different from what I typically experience, which is usually about never reaching a destination or finding the thing I need to find or resolving the thing I need to resolve.