Nightmares

written by areww

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​Just like dreams, nightmares are unavoidable…
A famous psychologist, Deirdre Barret, who works at Harvard University in the United States of America, researched and found that nightmares are helpful to “our survival”. His theory is that nightmares “act as the brain’s way of focusing a person’s attention on issues they need to address”. Some traumatic dreams that make no sense to us can actually be ‘past-life’ experiences such as being chased, an animal attacking you or fighting for your ground.

It is typical for all of us to use our instinct to fight a nightmare. Some may think running away would be the best approach whereas others take on their distresser. Whether you fight or flight, Barret highly suggests you review your dreams and think how it may link to a problem in real life. Nightmares are something everyone will have whether you’re a small child or a grown adult, however, if it is becoming a constant issue that is taking over your mind in the waking life, seeing a doctor or therapist should be considered.

It is important to note that suffering from nightmares on a daily basis can put huge strain on your heart and if you don’t find the medical attention you need, you may find yourself having a heart attack in your sleep or more serious outcomes. With this said however, having nightmares is still healthy for us as sleep releases lots of stress and worries!
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What should I do about my dreams?
We’ve spoken about what dreams mean, why we get them, how we tackle a dream, what factors affect them but something you should definitely consider is doing something about your dreams! 

Every night, if you do dream about something, keep a ‘dream journal’ near your bed! No matter how tired you are, if you can remember the specifics of your dream you should grab your journal and scribble your dream in note form! Keeping track of this can really help you see recurring themes and it is important to remember;

“Within five minutes of a dream ending, we forget 50 percent of its content, and 90 percent of our dream's detail is lost only 10 minutes later.”

If you aren’t a fan of writing things down in the middle of the night, why not try ‘Notes’ on your laptop or mobile device! Keep a collection of dream entries from all your nights and then in the morning re-read what you wrote and remember things about what you dreamt. 

Talk about them! The following day, you should try to tell a family member or friend what you dreamt about and get their thoughts and response from them! 

Make stories about them! Why not use your dreams to make up a great creative short story! Add to it, exaggerate things, try to find a way to make something in your dream make somewhat sense!

Speak to a therapist or doctor! In this blog I mentioned how seeing professional help may be something to consider if your nightmares are becoming a disturbing annoyance in your life - be open minded about this! Think about opening up about them no matter how scary, embarrassing, funny or crazy a dream is.
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More Information!
For more information about dreams, nightmares, sleep paralysis or anything of the sort check out:
https://www.healthline.com https://www.webmd.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_religion_and_dreams https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/

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