MacintoshHD/private/var/vm taking up 34GB?! Anything I can do about it?

I've got a MBA (late 2010 model) and I was downloading some movies when I got a message saying that I didn't have the storage space for them. The last time I checked my SSD (128GB), I had over 50GB of free space so this came as a little surprise. So I checked my SSD and sure enough, I only had 7 GB of free space. I knew I had some apps and whatnot that I had been meaning to get rid of but nothing that huge. After cleaning my HD, I had 22GB of space, still a far cry from the original 50+ so I did some exploring. I found a file in MacintoshHD called "private." I couldn't remember ever making it or ever seeing it there before so I checked it out. And sure enough, it was taking up over 35GB. I understand that it is normally a hidden folder and a few months back I had to settle an issue and I had all hidden folders "unhidden." Anyway, after checking to see which of the containing "private" folders was taking up so much space, I found "vm" weighing in at a whopping 34.36GB. I understand that it's supposed to be virtual memory snapshots or something for when my computer goes into hibernation. But what I don't understand is why on Earth is it taking up over 34GB of space? I mean that can't be "average." There are 34 individual "swapfile" files numbered from 0 all the way to 33 with each one at ~1GB. Is there anything I can do to clear up this wasted space? I've only got 128GB to work with so 34GB is a lot to have sacrificed. Any suggestions/advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Matt

Delete the Sleep Image File. Then Turn off Hibernate feature. It is only good for it you let the system run the battery down all the way. So don't let that happen.

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MacintoshHD/private/var/vm taking up 34GB?! Anything I can do about it?

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