How to End Recurring Nightmares and Bad Dreams

A nightmare is a bad dream that wakes you up. Nightmares disrupt your sleep and are very distressing. Sometimes the anticipation of having a nightmare can in itself disrupt sleep. Fortunately, nightmares are relatively easy to treat, often with permanent lasting relief.

It helps to start by understanding that nightmares are dreams: imagery and stories created by your subconscious mind. They may reflect a particular emotional theme and may manifest as a compilation of images and symbols that may or may not have a particular or relevant meaning.

One way to understand any dream content, not necessarily a nightmare, is to speak the dream out loud or write about it. When the images are transformed into language, the meaning may reveal itself. For example, I had a new client who had a dream that cats were wandering through her house. The windows and doors were open. The cats were friendly but in her house. Once she spoke her dream out loud, we both smiled as we realized the dream was a symbolic representation of being in therapy. The cats were Dr. Katz, and the house was her mind. She noted that coming to therapy made her feel vulnerable and exposed. Once this was spoken and understood, she no longer had that dream.

Another way to understand dream content is to look for emotional patterns. How do you feel in your dream? If it is a recurring nightmare, are you being chased, trapped, or out of control? Even if the imagery is different, is there a theme across dreams? Again, speak or write about your dreams or nightmares to identify the theme in language. This helps move the content into the rational/cognitive system so you can think about the content in a more objective way.

Next, consider your content. Is it related to an unresolved issue from your past or a fear of the future? Is there an underlying issue that you may want to talk about or work on in your waking time? If this is a chronic recurring dream/nightmare, it could be a call for deeper work with a therapist.

Transform a feared image

Source: Photo by Pixabay

How to rescript your dreams

However, if you are ready to end a recurring nightmare, here are some effective strategies.

1. Let’s assume you have already ruled out poor sleep habits such as watching a horror film before going to sleep, drinking too much alcohol or caffeine, and that you have treated sleep apnea if you have it or addressed anything else that would naturally disturb your sleep and give you nightmares.
2. Write about the recurring nightmare. Identify the emotional theme or critical issue that you want to change such as recurring images of falling, causing a disaster, or being in a life-threatening or dangerous situation. What is the core issue of the nightmare?
3. Since you are the creator and director of your dream, you can construct a different image and rescript the nightmare movie that is playing in your mind. Start by approaching the feared content and then change it. For example, as soon as you are being chased, turn around and confront the fear. Maybe you find that a harmless cute bunny was chasing you. Change the scary or threatening imagery into something outrageous, ridiculous, and non-threatening.
4. For example, in the movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Cuarón,2004), one of the professors had a fear of the full moon as he would become a werewolf. He used the spell “rediculoso” to turn the moon into a balloon and watched it float away. Similarly, rescripting turns the fearful imagery into something else and the nightmare will float away.
5. Next, practice the new imagery. Practice it while you are awake. At first, this may be challenging as it is confronting something that is very upsetting. But as you practice, you will get used to the new imagery. It should help you feel empowered and in control. Don’t worry if you still have the nightmare pop up at night; keep practicing the new imagery during the day until you find it to be easy. Give yourself an adequate dose of the treatment. It could take a few weeks of practice.
6. Then, without even noticing, the nightmares will simply stop.