Meditation Before Sleep

[phoenixfiress]

Hello, everyone. I just wanted to put this question out there, and any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. I was originally going to post this under the Dreams section of this message board, but then I thought that meditation might be a useful tool to help with my little problem. You see, I just finished a rather fast-paced first semester as a graduate student. While I made out well, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, it was a stressful time (usually with little time for sleep). Now that my stressors are on hold for the holidays, it seems that I'm having something similar to REM rebound. Often after stressful times in my life, I find myself having very vivid, disturbing dreams. After all, when the body and mind are taxed, they have a tendency to rebel. I would prefer to get out of this pattern before it becomes too ingrained, and I was wondering if anyone knew of a few helpful meditation techniques that I could use before going to sleep at night. I'm not all that experienced with meditation, but I'm not a complete novice either. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks.
-phoenixfiress