Changing your Dream Experience
Since
the dream serves as a selective, regulatory application of the brain for our emotions, a
way to decrease the negative experiences may be to regulate mood yourself. Find ways or
develop techniques to lower your stress levels prior to going to bed. This will not only
improve your dream experience, but your waking life as well. Some simple techniques for
lowering your stress levels are meditation, reading a book, going for a walk, or a short
breathing exercise. If you get stressed easily about work or tasks, it is important not to
concern yourself with issues or things you have to do for the next day. Think of it as
taking a nightly vacation away from your "have to do’s". There are many
other ways to get your mind off of stressful things and it is best to develop one for
yourself that you feel comfortable with. Another good technique is giving your self
positive self affirmations prior to bed. For instance go ahead and tell yourself that you
will have restful, warm and positive dreams tonight. Initiate your mental mood yourself,
rather than letting your stress do it for you.
When you do suffer from a nightmare and wake up in the
middle of the night, acknowledge to yourself that you were having a nightmare and remind
yourself that it is only a nightmare. Secondly, find someone or something that can
reassure you and that you feel safe with and then return to sleep. It is important
to restore your peace of mind and allow yourself a restful sleep and not create a pattern
of fear with your sleep patterns. This should help to cut down on the recurrence of
nightmares. To know more about the treatment of nightmares check out more on Mood Regulation
in eliminating negative dream states.
Functions of
Nightmares
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