How to Complete a Nightmare asserts that there are no bad dreams. There are only difficult ones, and these dreams intend to help us. Psychologist-trained Len Worley demonstrates that disturbing dreams are part of Nature’s evolutionary push to help us face anything within ourselves that leaves us disempowered, afraid, or weak.

Dr. Worley proposes that even so-called trauma dreams, which remind the dreamer of past hurt, are orchestrated by our deeper intelligence to give us rehearsal time, much like flight simulations that would-be pilots face. The purpose of repeated exposure to challenging scenarios is to help us mature, become skillful, and enable us to move beyond the highly reactive emergency strategies of fight, flight, or freeze.

Nightmares occur not only because of adverse events; they come to help us heal and grow strong.