Personally, if I had that kind of problem, I would lay completely off of the alcohol. But I know hardly anyone else agrees with me about this, and maybe that's not the right approach for you.

I mostly agree with what Caradon said, about fearlessness, though I do think it is possible to be hurt in a dream. Fear is sometimes well founded, and shouldn't be disregarded or ignored, but it can also be a mistake or a lie, and I think that with most nightmares its more of the later. Even if a dream were legitimately dangerous, and I think that mostly dreams are not, there's still something to be said about facing it with confidence, rather than feeding the dysfunctional pattern with blind emotional reaction.