Nightmares are the Shock Therapy of Nature

Nightmares are the most substantial and vitally important dreams, and are of therapeutic value. They wake us up with a cry, as if all our repressed content forms a bubble which expands until it bursts one night, and we experience a nightmare. This built-up of tension in the unconscious can potentially be expressed in prior dreams, there is something that wants to be brought into consciousness.
After waking up from a bad dream, we are forced to acknowledge our unconscious conflicts, but tend to forget about them, and carry on with our daily lives, unaware of the psychological damage we do to ourselves.

Nightmares are the shock therapy nature uses on us when we are too unaware of some psychological danger. They shock us out of deep unconscious sleepiness about some dangerous situation. As if the unconscious says, “Look here, this problem is urgent!” The psyche tells us to “wake up” and face what we have neglected. The majority of nightmares represent opportunities for personal healing through much-needed emotional release.