The occasional nightmare is considered a dream that’s simply more frightening or upsetting. Nightmares tend to be caused by stress, anxiety, or sometimes as a reaction to certain medications.

Research shows that dreaming is not just a byproduct of sleep, but serves its own important functions in our well-being.

“It’s not a huge, dramatic effect but it certainly seems like paying attention to your dreams can have positive effects,” says Harvard University psychologist Deirdre Barrett, author of The Committee of Sleep.

We Learn When We Dream: Our Vivid Dreams Shape Our Memories

dream sleep actually provides at least two benefits for the brain.

The first is actually creativity, because it's during REM sleep and dreaming specifically when the brain starts to collide all of the information that you've recently learned together with all of this back catalog of autobiographical information that you've got stored up in the brain.

The second benefit of dream sleep is essentially a form of overnight therapy. It's during dream sleep where we start to actually take the sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional experiences that we've been having.

There are thousands of anecdotes of creative greats having eureka moments when they dream.

dream recall is thought to require some amount of wakefulness during the night for the vision to be encoded in longer-term memory.

The sleeping brain cannot store new information into long-term memory

Dream themselves exist first in working memory, or the memory we use to hold and manipulate thought fragments.

REM (rapid eye movement) is the stage of sleep in which dreaming usually occurs.

Dreams are potentially massive indicators of your overall sleep health, and, more specifically, your REM sleep health.

The process of hammering and forging our daily experiences into long-term memory through REM sleep is how we learn to master any sport, art, musical instrument, surgery, etc. through daily practice.

The more regularly you exercise, the better you will sleep, the more you will dream during REM sleep, and the more of a creative powerhouse you will become.

When you’re awake, your thoughts have a certain logic to them. When you sleep, your brain is still active, but your thoughts or dreams often make little or no sense. This may be because the emotional centers of the brain trigger dreams, rather than the logical regions.

if you have nightmares frequently, you could have a sleeping disorder.

Regularly occurring scary dreams can be labeled a sleeping disorder if the nightmares: -cause you to be anxious about going to sleep -lead to frequent disruptions of your sleep -bring about other sleeping or psychological problem

 Sleep hygiene involves ensuring both your habits and sleep environment are ideal for quality rest.

Dark and quiet room. Temperatures in the 60s to low 70s are considered best. Remove or turn off light sources like TVs, VCRs, and alarm clocks, and consider light blocking shades if you live in an urban area or sleep past sunrise. White noise machines or earplugs can be helpful for drowning out bothersome noise.

Some psychologists believe talking about dreams and getting social support to put them in perspective is key to reducing anxiety following nightmares.

Other approaches can focus on routines or working on areas of your life that could be contributing to stress or fear.

The American Psychological Association’s 2013 Stress in America poll found that stress was associated with poorer sleep, and that poorer sleep was also associated with higher stress

When you’ve had a tough day, take a few minutes to de-stress before bed. Try a warm bath, relaxing music, yoga or other techniques to see what helps you most.

Knowing something about a dream or nightmare can significantly help a person identify any “real-life” stressors that they can easily modify to prevent restless night.

The dream-deprived nod off quickly, sleep soundly and emerge from sleep fully awake.

The processes that allow us to create long-term memories largely lie dormant while we sleep, which is why most dreams are forgotten shortly after waking.

The emotional content and logical consistency of a dream also affect how much of our dreams we remember.

before going to bed, drink three full glasses of water — not beer or wine, because they suppress R.E.M. sleep — which will force you to get up and go to the bathroom. “Middle-of-the-night awakenings are frequently accompanied by dream recall,” Stickgold says.

repeating the phrase “I’m going to remember my dreams” three times before you drift off to sleep. And keep a notebook and pen by your bed. Both preparations establish recall as a priority.

On waking up, don’t open your eyes, don’t move, don’t say a thing — any sensory perception or movement tends to wipe out memories of a dream.

As the brain awakens, it starts to turn on processes needed for long-term storage.

Suffering must be the inevitable tariff exacted from spirit for residing in human form.

I still have the desire to do the job of acting. It's just a matter of whether I'll be allowed to do the job of acting that remains to be seen. There are only so many brick walls that I'm willing to beat my head on.

I tend to mostly take the day off from working on Sundays, but I do spend some time reading. Mostly what I'm picking up is what's in stores. I really do love to read fiction from the last year or two.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Now the Bible tells us that we are all by nature, sinners, that we are slaves to sin and Satan, and that unless we are converted, or born again, we must be miserable forever.

Given the knee-jerk patriotism of recent war movies, it's discouraging to see 'Windtalkers' evade pertinent facts that could have recast the doubled-edged issues of racism and loyalty and made them relevant to contemporary times.

When I was in primary school, my best friend was a boy and we always goofed around, climbed trees, got holes in my trousers and muddied all my tops and things like that; a complete nightmare for the washing, but great fun.

When I found out I was in the top 13 I was freaking out and crying it was such a joyous moment for me.

Life is very busy now. I find that in today's cities, the public is very tired after working the whole day. When concerts start at eight o'clock, the wife pushes the husband to go to the concert, where some promptly fall asleep!

We also have a program in place for low income people. A family of four making $26,000 a year can receive medical coverage, irrespective of citizenship or what documents.

If a fact does not modify your logic on being known, either you don't believe the fact or it is not a fact.

If you're a basketball player and you don't stop and take pictures with your fans, you can have an amazing game and everyone still loves you.

She didn't break his heart, but I feel like a man is supposed to be a man, he ain't supposed to be all involved in that. That's why she got sisters and friend for. Just show up with the ring and act right.

I take a breath when I have to.

After hearing from my colleagues, I have decided to run for Speaker of the House. Let's work together to make a difference for our country.

If two people have only one thought between them, something is very wrong.

It took the first 204 years of our Nation's history to accumulate $1 trillion in debt. And now we are doing that every 2 or 3 years.