For the past few months I've been having this dream where I'm falling from a building, and I wake up just before I hit the ground. It happens at least twice a week and it's really affecting my sleep. I've tried changing my bedtime routine but nothing seems to help.
The falling dream is your brain's way of telling you something in your waking life feels out of control, and twice a week suggests whatever's causing that stress isn't getting resolved during the day - so you'd probably benefit more from figuring out what's actually making you anxious (work situation, relationship, money stuff) and tackling that directly rather than just tweaking your bedtime routine, since the nightmare will keep coming back until the underlying worry does.
The falling dream probably isn't just stress - recurring nightmares like that can also come from sleep debt or disrupted REM cycles, which makes them stick around even when life seems fine.
Before diving into what's stressing you out, it might be worth checking if you're actually getting enough sleep. Most people need around 7-9 hours, and even being off by an hour or two consistently can mess with your dream patterns. If you're running on fumes during the day, that's something to fix first before assuming it's all psychological.
The thing that actually made a difference for me with a recurring nightmare was pinning down when it happened - turns out mine showed up on nights when I'd been sitting badly during the day or skipped my usual movement routine, and addressing the physical stuff during waking hours genuinely reduced the frequency. Recurring nightmares stick around partly because your sleep architecture gets disrupted, so it's worth looking at whether you're actually getting consistent, quality sleep rather than just assuming stress is the culprit - sometimes it's less about what's on your mind and more about sleep debt or restless nights that keep pulling you back into the same dream loop.
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