Hi Jen, some meds will make you have very powerful dreams. One thing about dreams is that you can stop them with aids, as mentioned by Drifter and thats a good point from Dolphin about going to bed worried.
But the bottom line is all of your lifes experience, both conscious and unconscious are in your head. Many of them are unresolved, as the outcome was questionable. The mind has a way of resolving these unresolved issues by way of dreams as is a natural way of relieving anxiety and stress.
They can be all jumbled together, and make no sense, or they can be very specific and actually show and ending to the story.
Positive thinking will help avoid future dreams, but the passed years will continue to pop up untill they are consiously resolved. Like calling a person that hurt you before and telling them how you feel.
I used to have lots of panic attacks at night, it was awful, I would wake up like I had the worst nightmare. Plus going to bed being worried about it happening it going to make it worse. Can you take anything to help you sleep or help you relax?
oh it works by lowering the BP
i take prazosin for nightmares it is a alpha-blocker that reduces the frequency of bad dreams the VA did a study on it for PTSD :)