Although I am just today joining the site, I have been keeping a log of my dreams for a while now, and I have been noticing a theme. Usually in my dreams, something bad happens, either failing a test, missing a class, a friend dying, my fears confronting me any chance I get. While most people think it is tourture, I actually think it helps me. Sorry to brag, but I am a happy, perky guy (as labeled by friends) and it is rare for something to get me down, no matter how bad it is. I am starting to think it is because I have much, much worse senarios I live out in my dreams, so reality doesn’t seem as bad. Now that I am starting to ponder changing my dreams, I wonder if it will have any effect on my personality. What are your thoughts, your experences, or anything you would like to add?
If you notice that it happens you can always try to give yourself bad dreams.
But I don’t think that’s how it works. Maybe when awake you just don’t bother with the bad things so they are in your subconscious and pop up in your dreams.
Or maybe since bad things don’t bother you that much there is not such a big resistance to let bad things happen in your dreams.
I sort of agree with krakatoa on that one… maybe you don’t let out enough negative feelings during the day, so they seep out into your dreams at night. I mean, everyone has negative feelings sometimes, right? It’d be weird if you only experienced happy feelings all the time…
I experience that sometimes I cry a lot in my dreams (even though I don’t cry that much IRL), and sometimes I have very angry dreams, and usually the anger and the crying is amplified beyond what I feel IRL, and I think that’s because I keep so much of it bottled up when I’m awake. When something changes in my dreams, that usually means there’s been some change IRL, or at least a change in the way I think of things.
But I don’t know, I think you have a good point too, because dreams can really help with some things. I seem to get more and more brave when it comes to facing bugs in my dreams, and I think (or hope?) that that’s reflected in my real life as well. I also think that paying more attention to my dream scenarios can give me more courage doing things I normally wouldn’t do. Like once, me and my friend were sitting at a pier, and she asked me what she’d do if she fell in (she can’t swim, but on the other hand I’m scared of deep water and seaweed). I told her I’d pretend it was a dream and jump in. It helps to see life as many little experiences, and then face one experience at a time. I think it’s great that you don’t take your dreams for granted and that you appreciate them, even though they seem scary to me lol. 
And by the way, welcome to LD4all! 
