HART: How to stop nightmares from disturbing your sleep

Years ago, resolving nightmares was slow and uncertain. But nowadays, nightmares are treated successfully using what’s called ‘image rehearsal’. ILLUSTRATION| IGAH

What you need to know:

  • So find somewhere quiet, close your eyes and start imagining! Involve all your senses. Imagine touching things.
  • Sounds. Smells. Try imagining real places, or maybe somewhere completely imaginary. Simple domestic scenes, stories or conversations.
  • Go back over the scene again and again, making everything more and more realistic.  Practice until you can reliably call up your images any time - even with your eyes open.

Years ago, resolving nightmares was slow and uncertain. But nowadays, nightmares are treated successfully using what’s called ‘image rehearsal’

Pretty much everyone has bad dreams, though we rarely remember them. But when they’re scary enough to wake you, now that’s what we call a nightmare. Nightmares typically involve being chased, threatened or injured. Or remembering an actual traumatic event. 

Almost everyone has a nightmare occasionally. They’re rare in preschoolers, but roughly a quarter of children aged between 5 to 12 are woken by a bad dream at least once a week.

Nightmares get more frequent through adolescence, peak in young adulthood, and then usually slowly drop away.

Girls and women usually have more nightmares than males of all ages, and the specific dreams vary across cultures. Like nightmares about falling are especially common among women in countries where there’s a premium on women remaining chaste. And so the fear of becoming a ‘fallen woman’ is intense.

Some nightmares can cause extremely high levels of anxiety, even being followed immediately by another. But mostly specific nightmares become less intense with time, though that doesn’t always happen. Often they become a learned behaviour and repeat indefinitely. They can also cause daytime anxiety, a heightened startle response, and flashbacks.

Years ago, resolving nightmares was difficult, slow and uncertain. But nowadays, nightmares are treated very successfully using what’s called “image rehearsal.”

This therapy usually only needs two or three sessions, and is also very effective with children.

It works because vividly imagined images trigger exactly the same emotional response as real ones. So the right kind of visualisation can trigger feelings of calm and relaxation — or anything else for that matter. The trick’s to make the visualisation feel real. And that needs practise, which is why the technique is called “image rehearsal.” 

FIND SOMEWHERE QUIET

So find somewhere quiet, close your eyes and start imagining! Involve all your senses. Imagine touching things. Sounds. Smells. Try imagining real places, or maybe somewhere completely imaginary. Simple domestic scenes, stories or conversations. Go back over the scene again and again, making everything more and more realistic.  Practice until you can reliably call up your images any time - even with your eyes open.

Now try one out sometime when you’re feeling stressed. You’ll be amazed how just a few moments of visualisation will relax your mind. Or try one in the small hours, when you wake with all the troubles of the day churning through your mind.

Now try the technique on a nightmare. Don’t worry what the dream meanse. Instead just rework your memory of the dream while you’re awake and relaxed. For example, by turning the threatening images in the dream into something harmless. Or creating an alternate scenario in which you’re able to take control of the situation.

Now run through your new script at bedtime. Usually, the particular dream you’ve worked on will never occur again. And all your other nightmares will start to fade, as will your daytime flashbacks and anxiety. Because day and night, your conscious mind really can control anxiety. And your dreams…