How to stop yourself about dreaming about a specific thing before you go to sleep.

It's simple. What you do is that before you go to sleep (preferably when you're lying down in your bed), think about whatever thing you think you might have a nightmare about/spooked you out today. This will cause it to not be in your dream. It usually can't be a broad subject. For example, if you read a bunch of creepy stories, you need to at least briefly remember each one for a second or so.
The reason this works is because when you sleep, your brain sorts out whatever things happened during that day, and some of those things end up in your dreams. By thinking about them right before you go to sleep, your brain doesn't go over them as you're sleeping, thus causing them not to be in your dream. (note: There might be other reasons, but this is the main one.)
Try it, it works.

Does this mean you won't dream about something you WANT to dream about if you're thinking about just before you fall asleep as well?:shock:

yeah does that work for wanting the dream as well?

Err, this advice sounds at odds with dream induction techniques, which get you to visualize what you want to dream about, while you fall asleep.
Maybe works for you, but other's may be different ;)

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Originally Posted by iank

Does this mean you won't dream about something you WANT to dream about if you're thinking about just before you fall asleep as well?:shock:

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I'm not sure enough to answer that.

I try to think pleasant things as I go to sleep. Sometimes I start to think of bad things, and I can feel myself slip into a daydream state about them. If that happens (or any bad dream), I force myself to stay awake for a couple minutes in hopes of clearing my mind.

If you dream about things that happened during the day, what if you start planning your dream as soon as you wake up? Watch movies about it, draw pictures, write about it... It'd be interesting to test out. :]