healthier you today

Nightmares are disturbing, visual dream sequences that occur in your mind and wake you up from your sleep, and it is probably true to assume that most children and adults have had nightmares at some time in their lives. To most of us, a nightmare is a short-lived unpleasant experience that occurs every now and again and it is something more of an annoyance than any real problem; but to many people, nightmares are dreams that cause intense fear and anxiety and are often found in anxious people who have had their sense of security threatened and become much more significant in that person’s life.

Stress

Nightmares may be triggered by major psychological traumas, such as those experienced by patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which has occurred after a serious accident, rape, or a horrific scene such as experienced by soldiers in wars. Stress and / or PTSD are thought to be the most common cause of nightmares. A continual bombardment of nightmares, sometimes several per night, can cause our stress levels to climb rapidly and then even small problems in life escalate to major stressful problems. The culmination of severe stress is a mental breakdown where a person cannot cope with anything, by which time they need professional help and care.

Anxiety

Panic attacks may occur during sleep in patients with panic disorder, anxiety, or depression and are experienced as nightmares. They can be stimulated by anxiety during the day, highly emotional events, and by anti-depressant drugs. Nightmare disorder, which is also called dream anxiety disorder, is characterized by the occurrence of repeated dreams during which the sleeper feels threatened and frightened. Such symptoms of fear or anxiety as increased heart rate, dilated pupils, and sweating are not as dramatic in patients with nightmare disorder as they are in patients experiencing sleep terrors. You should see a sleep specialist if your nightmares cause you great anxiety or often disrupt your sleep.

How to Deal with Nightmares

Certainly by reducing the stress in our lives by techniques such as yoga, meditation, going out for long walks, and adjusting our diet to cut back on sugars, fats, caffeine, and alcohol, the nightmares will become less frequent and we can start to feel more in control of our lives again. There are many ways of relieving distress from a nightmare, such as writing it down or thinking of a happy ending to the dream. Talking can resolve stressful issues and keep them from building up in a person’s mind.

Imagery rehearsal therapy for chronic nightmares in sexual assault survivors with PTSD is said to be quite effective – the affected person actively tries to think about the nightmare while they are awake, and alter parts of that nightmare in their thoughts and by repeating this many times, the mind starts to be retrained in its recollection of the trauma.