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If you have a recurring nightmare, your subconscious may be trying to tell you something. Listen to it. If you have a recurring nightmare, your subconscious may be trying to tell you something.

A nightmare is a dream occurring during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that results in feelings of strong terror, fear, distress or extreme anxiety. This phenomenon tends to occur in the latter part of the night and oftentimes awakens the sleeper, who is likely to recall the content of the dream. If you have a recurring nightmare, your subconscious may be trying to tell you something. Listen to it. If you can't figure out why you are having bad dreams, and you continue to have them, talk to a qualified mental health care provider. They may be able to help you figure out what is causing your nightmares and provide tips to put you at ease.

Keep in mind that no matter how scary a nightmare is, it is not real and most likely will not happen to you in real life. Nightmares, or bad dreams, are common in children and adults. Often nightmares are caused by: stress, conflict, fear, trauma, emotional problems, medication or drug use, illness. Most nightmares may be a normal reaction to stress, and some clinicians believe they aid people in working through traumatic events. Frequent occurrence of nightmares becomes a disorder when it impairs social, occupational and other important areas of functioning. At this point, it may be referred to as Nightmare Disorder (formerly Dream Anxiety Disorder) or "repeated nightmares."

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"Repeated nightmares" is defined more specifically as a series of nightmares with a recurring theme. Nightmares usually begin in childhood before age 10 and are considered normal unless they significantly interfere with sleep, development or psychosocial development. They tend to be more common in girls than boys, and they may continue into adulthood. Adult nightmares are often associated with outside stressors or exist alongside another mental disorder. Nightmares might be associated with anxiety and trauma. If you have nightmare disorder, you may fear going to sleep or worry that each night you will have another nightmare.

You may also feel anxious and scared when you wake up from a nightmare and be unable to fall back to sleep. Sleep loss can cause you to have even more intense nightmares. As a result, you may experience daytime sleepiness. In most instances after you wake up, you will be able to clearly remember the details of your nightmare. A disturbing dream that does not wake you up is not considered a nightmare. Instead it is simply a bad dream. It is possible to have more than one nightmare, often with similar themes, during a night of sleep.