Having Bad Dreams? Here’s What You Can Do.

Bad dreams? Being chased? Teeth falling out? Being naked in front of people? Being late for an exam? Blood spread across the floor? Surrounded by dead bodies? – Each one of us have experienced a bad dream, also called as nightmare at least once in our lifetime. But why do we see them? Do they have a relation with our waking life? Let’s find out!

Occurring of dreams, good or bad and having a sound sleep is influenced by various factors. The conditions of our sleeping environment, i.e. the bedroom affects the quality of the sleep to a great extent. Temperature, comfort and lightening are known to have an effect on our dream world. Even the slightest bit of light from the LEDs or a screen may disturb the circadian rhythm, thereby affecting sleep.

Dreaming- A Distinct Consciousness

When we dream, we are in a state of subjective consciousness which may or may not be worked upon by the waking life. Sleeping time can be divided broadly into two parts. The first few hours of sleep are called deep sleep whereas the later hours comprises the dream sleep. The latter is also referred to as Rapid Eye Movement (REM).

Factors Affecting The Content Of Dreams

Having a nightmare has immediate reactions on the dreamer. Most people tend to wake up from a bad dream, sweating and panting. They mostly remember the content of the dream. What we see in a dream is influenced by many factors such as:

Experiences

A person’s day to day experiences and those from the past are studied to be affecting the dreams. In our dreams, we see situations recreating themselves. The events of the waking life are usually incorporated in our dreams somewhat after one to two or five to seven days. These events manifest themselves in fragments in the dream world.

Anxiety, Stress and Depression

Our state of mind affects the sleep pattern. Therefore, anxiety and stress results in poor sleep which ruins the whole of the next day also. Studies show that stress due to an upcoming event may induce distressful nightmares. For example, a bad dream depicting us getting late on the day of an important exam.

Traumatic Experiences

Any major incident in life or something that hit us really hard seem to act upon the dream scenario. For example, Our partner cheating on us.

Medications and Drugs

Certain types of drugs, particularly those that trigger neurotransmitters affect the nightmare frequency. These include narcotics, antidepressants, marijuana, etc. Intake of medications and drugs may induce hallucinations resulting in the poor quality of sleep.

What To Do To Avoid Them?

Every problem has a solution. Having a bad dream obviously affect our mood and sometimes spoil the entire upcoming day. Often, we feel paralyzed after suddenly waking up from a dream. This is bodily mechanism to shut off the brain’s response actions to the events happening in the dreams. Here’s a list of things we can do to avoid having nightmares.

Maintaining A Good Sleep Hygiene

Both your habits and the sleeping environment affect our sleep. Maintaining a good sleep hygiene can help in reducing the frequency of nightmares. Firstly, we should give up on eating in the bed. Food crumbs creates unnecessary mess on the bed. Secondly, change the bed sheets from time to time. Thirdly, wash the face, arms and legs before going to sleep. Lastly, a regular and fixed sleeping routine can help minimise the bad dreams.

Talk About It Or Write It Out!

Whenever a bad dream occurs, talk about it to someone as soon as you wake up. If there’s none, maintain a journal and write every detail of the nightmare.
Image Rehearsing Therapy (IRT) is a type of behavioral cognitive therapy in which a person recreates the nightmare into a positive ending.

Deal With The Stressors

Any stressful event that may have happened during the daytime must be deal with positivity and fought back until even the smallest traces of anxiety disappears from the mind. Do things that you enjoy to lift up the mood.

Fall Asleep With Positive Thought

Turning off any screen before one hour from the bed time helps in increasing the quality of the sleep. After switching off the screen, think about your goals and what you aspire to be in life. We know that the thought process of the brain cannot be controlled wholly. But every negative thought can be countered by a positive one.

Meditation

Meditating before the sleep time helps relax the mind and soothes the soul. Also, a good meditating music can also be put simply to fall asleep. Most importantly, meditation helps in cleansing the brain and purifying the soul.

Get Help If Needed

A proper medical advise should not be pushed. If you are having unbearable troubles with the sleeping patterns and the dream world, seek professional care as soon as possible.

Happy Sleeping. Goodbye Nightmares!

Also Read: Meaning of the most common dreams.