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Why do I have nightmares every night. I often have terrible dreams. Treating conditions that cause nightmares

Nightmares are sleep disturbances that are negative dreams. There are many reasons why you have nightmares. Basically, they all lean towards psychological conflicts. However, you should not incline them only in the negative direction. They bring positive experiences, making it possible to resolve current life problems. Most of the difficulties experienced are unconsciously suppressed within our consciousness. Therefore, by remembering the details, you can get a hint about the most significant problem that needs to be solved.

The positive effects of dreaming with nightmares

Experts have found several ways to answer the question: "Why have nightmares?" Since bad dreams are a product of brain activity, all negative emotions and experiences are projected into our minds. If you constantly have nightmares at critical moments in life, then a person manifests himself in a new light. Dreams of this kind are characterized by a positive outcome.

In most cases, bad dreams result from mental trauma. It could be the death of a family member, a serious accident, and more. Thus, a person throws out all the negative, restoring peace of mind. At first, nightmares dream every night and, after a while, they stop.

Who is exposed to nightmares?

Adults do not pay much attention to bad dreams, but young children are highly psychologically affected. If a child has nightmares, what should his parents do? First of all, it is worth paying attention to what happened to him during the day. Try to adequately perceive his experiences, because the main cause of children's nightmares is the struggle with any worries. The right advice and detailed discussion of situations will help your child calm down and avoid a hectic night.

Among the older generation, negative dreams are common among creative people with rich imaginations. In addition, anyone in a difficult profession can experience the stress of violent scenes. These include people of doctors, military, firefighters, etc.

Reasons for the appearance of nightmares

Scientists believe that when nightmares are dreaming, the reasons, first of all, lie in the person's lifestyle. The main problem is eating shortly before bedtime. The working condition of the stomach does not allow the body to rest. As a result, the body experiences discomfort that is reflected in dreams.

Alcohol is an equally popular problem. Most people often wonder why hangovers have nightmares? Alcohol itself is negative for the body. Therefore, the presence of negative scenes in a dream is fully justified and depends on the degree of intoxication. The more alcohol you drink, the brighter the nightmares.

Also, the cause may be psychological experiences or illness, accompanied by unpleasant sensations. These kinds of situations are the main reason why nightmares occur every night.

How to get rid of nightmares

Once you have dealt with the cause of bad dreams, try not to repeat the harmful effects. Take your last meal 3-4 hours before bedtime. Allow your body to rest before you go to bed. Take a hot bath, change into clean pajamas and have some tea. Go to bed at regular times to get enough sleep before starting a busy day. Fresh air plays an important role. Spend time in an open space as often as possible, away from the bustle of the city.

You can get rid of the same nightmare by carefully studying its details. Reflect on the meaning of what you saw and take action to solve the problem. Talk to a close friend. This will help you unload yourself psychologically.

Why is there a nightmare according to Miller's dream book

If a person had a nightmare that puts pressure on a psychological state, it means that he will face difficult disputes and difficulties. For women, this means deep disappointment in something or undeserved neglect on the part of others. You need to take such dreams as a warning and carefully take care of your health.

In general, we can say that nightmares are part of our life and are not difficult to deal with. However, if you are unable to solve the problem on your own, it is better to turn to an experienced psychotherapist who will help restore mental balance.

Video: why do I have nightmares?

Each of us has had a nightmare at least once in our lives. Needless to say, the feeling is not pleasant: even if you managed to wake up before its climax and did not see the most terrible, the feeling of horror - and with it a rapid heartbeat, wadded hands and feet and chills - are provided to you. So why do we have nightmares?

What the nightmares show

- a serious symptom that suggests that a person has serious problems. The worst thing is the recurring nightmares. If you have a dream from time to time with the same scenario, then we are talking about a serious problem.

If we exclude painful conditions - organic brain damage, psychological diseases and (in such cases, nightmares are a condition accompanying the disease), then such dreams may have several reasons, among which there are both external and internal.

External causes

Very often our nightmares are associated with bodily sensations.

Diseases. Choking nightmares can be caused by diseases of the cardiovascular system. It is not in vain that the people call such a disease as angina pectoris "angina pectoris", which literally strangles a person.

Sleeping conditions. You also need to exclude factors such as stuffiness or heat in the bedroom, overeating at night, and an uncomfortable bed. Agree, it's much easier - and incomparably cheaper! - do not spend money on consultations with a psychoanalyst, but simply open a window before going to bed or. You can also try to lie with your head the other way, sometimes it helps too.

Electromagnetic fields. Our apartments are crammed with household appliances, which are becoming more and more every day. Physicists believe that all these devices are so useful in everyday life, the impulses of which affect the sleeping brain. Therefore, at night, so as not to be tormented by nightmares, it is better to turn off all these achievements of civilization from the power grid.

Getty Images / Fotobank

Internal reasons

Stressful situations. They have a bad effect on our ability to sleep and see stress - both at work (conflicts with superiors or the team) and in personal relationships. Here nightmares act as a symptom of our experiences. To get rid of them, you need to solve the problems that cause them. If the reasons have disappeared, and nightmares, as a result, remain, it makes sense to contact a specialist - a psychologist or psychotherapist who will help eradicate them.

Psychic trauma. Fertile ground for nightmares is mental trauma, such as the death of a loved one, separation or divorce. Life events of this kind have a negative impact on the psyche, especially when it comes to sensitive people.

Feelings that we suppress. We are used to dividing our feelings into good and bad, positive and negative, which in itself is already wrong, since we all need them. But we can only show feelings that we consider positive. We suppress those that are usually called negative (guilt, aggression, anger, gloating, longing, sadness). And we take an ostrich position: we do not want to see these problems during the day, so they come to us at night - in the form of nightmares.

Internal conflict. This includes situations that we have not lived through, which, like repressed feelings and emotions, will one day - as a rule, at the most inopportune moment - will surely come out.


Getty Images / Fotobank

How to get rid of bad dreams

No magical thinking! Advice to people who are impressionable and know about this peculiarity: do not include magical thinking. This is the name of the phenomenon of the psyche, characterized by the fact that in case of any unfavorable events (for example, a black cat crossing the road) a magical mechanism is activated in a person, which may well lead to problems and troubles in real life. By the way, the phenomenon of self-fulfilling fortune-telling is based on magical thinking, when we ourselves do everything to make the scenario prophesied to us come true.

Interesting movie. For morally strong and mentally balanced people, there are many techniques that allow you to get rid of the negative influence of a nightmare: you can scroll a dream several times on an imaginary screen, like an interesting movie, replace scenes that are especially terrifying for you with less scary ones, try to find something in this "film" anything funny and even pick up actors for the main roles.

Psychoanalysis. The causes of nightmares must be looked for during the day. Therefore, another way is to try to analyze the cause of the nightmare: understand what is wrong in your life? If you are being strangled in a dream, think about who - or what - in life does this to you? Are you drowning in your sleep? What problems - at home or at work - are pulling you down? Of course, it is better to engage in such psychoanalysis with a specialist, but in the absence of the latter, you can try to do it yourself. Especially if you arm yourself with the dreaming Talmud of Sigmund Freud.

Sleep is only sleep. Whatever nightmare you dream, in any case, it is worth remembering that this is just a dream - it will not be able to influence our life, unless, of course, we ourselves want to.

Terrible dreams torment people mainly in childhood. After the twelfth year of life, their number and frequency usually decrease. But what if the adult still hasn't outgrown the horrors of the night? What causes nightmares in adults?

Scary and disturbing dreams from time to time dream about 50% adults, and women are more likely to see nightmares. Psychologists also note that people who are vulnerable, emotional, sensitive and creative have nightmares more often.

That adults have nightmares from time to time due to:

  • stresses of various kinds and strengths,
  • a hearty dinner before bed,
  • lack of sleep and rest,
  • medications (more precisely, their side effects, as well as drug withdrawal syndrome),
  • alcohol withdrawal (alcohol withdrawal syndrome),
  • depression,
  • fever, fever (nightmares often dream with a cold),
  • sleep apnea (cessation of breathing during sleep for more than 10 seconds),
  • restless legs syndrome (discomfort in the legs at night, forcing them to make easier movements that interfere with sleep).

Cause of very frequent and recurring nightmares usually is post-traumatic stress... A difficult life situation (for example, a threat to life, serious illness, physical injury, death of a loved one, violence, war) is always difficult for a person to experience for some time after everything has already ended.

The events that provoked psychological trauma often come back and “replayed” in a person's nightmares due to the fact that it helps the psyche to accept difficult events and come to terms. This is how the brain adapts to the nightmare experienced in reality in order to preserve the mental and physical health of a person.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is also called "Afghan syndrome", as almost all men who participated in the war in Afghanistan, it is observed and accompanied by frequent nightmares (among other manifestations of the disorder).

But chronic fatigue and simple stress can harm a person's psyche no less than psychotrauma. For example, if you have to endure a tyrant boss for years, you shouldn't be surprised that nightmares happen much more often than most adults.

Whatever the reason for the nightmares, if they have been dreaming for a long time two weeks, you need to seek medical or psychological help.

Plots and consequences of nightmares

Nightmares dream in the second half of the night, closer to morning, when a person is deeply asleep. Observed in REM sleep(it can be recognized by the quick movements of the sleeper's eyes).

Most often for adults dreaming:

  • flight or inability to escape, hide from danger or pursuers,
  • falling from a great height,
  • natural disasters,
  • paranormal entities,
  • illness, suffering, death (own or loved ones).
  • past troubles and problems.

Perhaps every person knows the state after an almost sleepless nightmare. Nightmare affects the quality of life, briefly worsening it. Daytime sleepiness, fatigue, depression, pessimism after a nightmare will surely pass after the next restful sleep.

But if nightmares dream constantly and often, then the consequences can be much more serious than a temporary decrease in the quality of life. Arise health problems both physical and mental. The most common ones are:

  • depression,
  • cardiovascular diseases,
  • obesity.

Ways to deal with nightmares

Nightmares always have cause... Until it is fixed, this problem will not be solved.

If the cause of the nightmares is use too heavy, fatty and high in calories food just before bed, getting rid of nightmares is simple - do not overeat, eat light foods a few hours before going to bed.


Lack of sleep and rest compensated by adjusting the work schedule and daily routine.

If the reason is colds with an increase in temperature, you need to take antipyretic drugs before bedtime.

If the reason is taking medications or other substances affecting the brain, they need to be canceled or the dose reduced. If the problem lies precisely in the abolition of a substance, it is necessary to wait a while until the body adapts and learns to work without "doping".

For example, alcohol withdrawal takes place 5-7 days after the cessation of alcohol abuse. Withdrawal after withdrawal of antidepressants is leveled by a slow and gradual decrease in their dose. Of course, in these cases, you cannot self-medicate, you cannot do without the help and consultation of a doctor.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression are treated by psychotherapists and psychiatrists. In these cases, part of the responsibility for a person's health is assigned to his relatives. They need to be attentive to his condition and seek medical help, since people suffering from mental disorders themselves rarely realize that they urgently need help. Nightmares against the background of depression and post-traumatic stress are also dangerous because suicidal thoughts and intentions are observed in those suffering from them.

If nightmares are caused by sleep disorders(apnea, restless legs syndrome, others), you need to contact a somnologist or otolaryngologist.

In general, all methods of dealing with stress have an ultimate goal. change in lifestyle, behavior, thinking of a person... That is, you have to work on yourself! In particular, it will be useful to develop such a personality quality as stress resistance.

Most people with nightmares due to stress and chronic fatigue helps:

  • transition to a clear sleep-wake mode,
  • sleep hygiene (you need to sleep in comfort, warmth, silence, darkness, in a ventilated room),
  • getting rid of bad habits,
  • adding physical activity during the day,
  • solving urgent psychological problems.

If you cannot relieve stress on your own, you need to seek help from a psychologist or psychotherapist.

The nightmare itself is stress. To relieve anxiety and tension after seeing the horror, people use different ways. Here are some of them:

  • record a dream,
  • draw a dream,
  • come up with a good ending to a dream,
  • retell and discuss the dream with a loved one.

After waking up from a nightmare helps to recover a glass of water, a shower, calm music, pleasant smells and other relaxing procedures.

What nightmares do you have more often?

Nightmares or frightening dreams with a threat to life or safety charge us with negative emotions for the whole day. It is estimated that about 4% of the adult population has nightmares, while among children and adolescents the percentage is much higher, at about 70%.

According to the definition of the international classification of diseases of the tenth revision, nightmares refer to sleep disorders parasomnias (translated from Latin Somnus means "dream"), which are associated with a violation of the phase of REM sleep.

Causes of nightmares

Nightmares can have a variety of origins and go hand in hand with mental health problems. Diseases that can cause nightmares include substance abuse, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and traumatic stress disorder.

There are several types of typical nightmares. Deserve special attention nightmares associated with PTSD... They appear in 80% of patients and it is this type of nightmare that is better diagnosed, since the stress underlying nightmares is obtained as a result of traumatic experiences, for example, as a result of an accident, being in a war zone, rape or the loss of a loved one. This type of parasomnia can accompany the patient throughout his life.

Recurring nightmares are based on real traumatic events in the past. Scientists suggest that recurring dreams are stored in memory in the form of a fixed pattern (anchored in the memory of the stress experienced). The nightmare scenario is often autobiographical. Unlike other memories, a bad dream reproduces the events of the past in full, makes you worry not only at night, but also throughout the day.

Severe stress can trigger nightmares. Thus, a “vicious circle” is formed, stress causes a realistic nightmare, and nightmare has a strong negative impact on the person's feelings upon awakening. The mechanism repeats itself over and over. The higher the stress level, the stronger the nightmare. Efforts to avoid nightmares will ultimately lead to REM sleep disturbances and early awakenings. Such a person will feel not rested and sleepy.

Nightmares can be the result exposure to psychoactive substances that disrupt the functions of the mediator (conduction) systems in the brain (mainly associated with norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine, as well as acetylcholine and gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA).

What symptoms do you need to see a doctor

To get rid of nightmares, you need to be treated under the supervision of a specialist. The problem is that most patients do not recognize this sleep disorder as a disease. Seeing a certified professional with work experience is the best and most effective way to deal with insomnia and nightmares.
Symptoms requiring a visit to a doctor, psychotherapist or somnologist:
- have great difficulty falling asleep.
- you cannot sleep longer than 30 minutes,
- wake up several times during the night and then cannot sleep again,
- repeated episodes of awakening from sleep are accompanied by feelings of intense anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, disgust and other negative emotions associated with the content of the dream,
- awakening occurs in "full combat readiness", with a feeling of confusion of thoughts, immediately a very clear recollection of the content of the dream comes,
- the presence of a real event in their past, which carries negative emotions and resonates with the content of the dream.

Treating conditions that cause nightmares

Fortunately, there are many treatments and ways to deal with nightmares. People who have been able to overcome this disease have improved sleep quality, they wake up refreshed and are less overworked at work, and sleep less during the day. Getting rid of nightmares improves your overall physical condition. Each nightmare is unique and only the doctor can decide which type of treatment to use.

There are several ways to deal with nightmares.

1. At the beginning it is worth analyzing your habits associated with falling asleep, because in many cases, modifying them a little can significantly improve the quality of sleep.

2. You can also resort to drug therapy(always used under medical supervision !!!). Sleep pills are most commonly used to treat sleep disorders. Their effectiveness mainly depends on the cause of the nightmares. Drug therapy has been shown to be the best treatment for parasomnias associated with substance abuse and nightmares with nocturnal awakenings.

Medications.
Sleeping pills: Bromisoval (Bromisovalum), Diphenhydramine (Diphenhydraminum) (Doxylaminum), Temazepam (Temazepamum), Phenobarbitalum (Phenobarbitalum), Flunitrazepam (Flunitrazepamum), Eulrazepamum, Elurazepamum (Flurazepamum), Flurazepamum (Flurazepamum) ), Zopiclonum, Clomethiazolum, Midazolamum, Nitrazepamum.
All drugs are addictive when used for more than 4 months and are strictly prescription drugs. The hypnotics of the diazepine group are best tolerated.

Hormone therapy.
A safer drug in the treatment of parosomiasis is melatonin (melatonin). Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland (located in the brain, belongs to the photoendocrine system), but after thirty years it produces too little of it. There are disturbances in circadian (cyclic) sleep rhythms: increased fatigue, depressive syndrome develops. You can make up for the lack of melatonin in the body with the help of synthetically synthesized. It is sold in the pharmacy chain under the same name, only from different manufacturers (Italian, Indian and Russian).

Phytotherapy.
Lavender flowers- natural sedative, helps to improve sleep. It is used not only as a medicine for parasomnias, but also as a remedy for stress and irritability. Lavender is often added to the bath. Bouquets of plant flowers, placed in the bedroom, are able to ensure a healthy sleep.
Melissa herb- an infusion of lemon balm leaves acts as a sedative. Treats sleep disorders. Especially recommended for the elderly.
Valerian root- the infusion of the plant helps to fall asleep, soothes, eliminates insomnia. Valerian is also used to combat stress.

Each medicine contains substances that interfere with the body's natural cycle. Therefore, you need to be careful and moderate in the use of sleep medications. The constant use of herbs and other natural medicines can lead to psychological dependence. Swallowing pills before bed becomes a kind of ritual that is repeated every night. Falling asleep naturally will become impossible as the brain constantly sends out signals that prompt action to take the medication.

3. Psychotherapy. The best choice for psychotherapy is cognitive behavioral therapy. Various CBT techniques have been shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of nightmares. Therapy is aimed at changing the mechanism of the nightmare scenario by influencing the cognitive model of the formation of dreams.
Most commonly used: imagination or rehearsal therapy. The treatment approach is based on the destruction of bad thoughts, emotions and behavior. The therapeutic procedure itself is very structured.
- The patient recalls his nightmares, writes them down.
- Then, under the guidance of a psychotherapist, some elements and details of individual events are changed so as to replace all the negative elements of the dream with positive ones.
- Later, a positive experience is consolidated that can influence the content of the nightmares that arise in the future.

Preventing nightmares

1. If you are light sleepers, eliminate any noise in the bedroom that interferes with sleep. The noise "paralyzes" the dream.
2. Move large clock faces out of your bedroom, out of your field of vision. You can hang them over your head or place them on the ground next to your bed. If you look at the clock before going to bed, it seems that time passes more slowly, then stress and arousal are formed.
3. Lighting in the bedroom is very important. The eyelids let light in very easily and simply closing the eyes may not be enough to maintain an adequate level of darkness for undisturbed sleep. Good curtains or blinds should protect from light, street lights in the evening and at night, from the first rays of the sun in the morning. If you enjoy reading a book before bed, you should take care that the light is warm, natural, preferably low lamp power (but enough to not tire your eyes when reading the text).
4. If you have trouble waking up, try to expose yourself to sunlight or bright light. This will restore biorhythms and, when dusk comes, it will be easier to cope with falling asleep.
5. Always take care of the timely change of bed linen. Air out the room for a few minutes before bed.
6. Avoid extraneous strong odors in the bedroom (smell of food, air freshener).
7. Do not bring food into the bedroom, the smell of food can cause hunger at the wrong time. In addition, the presence of food in the bedroom can increase the likelihood of allergenic mold and mildew.
8. An hour before bedtime, you can have snacks containing carbohydrates, but do not exceed the calorie value of up to 100 - 200 calories (the number of calories, as a rule, is on the package of any food product). It is better to have a short snack in the evening, which will help prevent the urge to eat at night, hunger leads to loss of sleep.
9. In the afternoon or 3-4 hours before bedtime, you should do physical exercises for at least 30 minutes. In addition, physical activity helps prevent stress, which is one of the main factors affecting sleep.
10. The temperature in the room is very important for sleep. The bedroom should be colder than the rest of the apartment. It is better to choose a room for a bedroom in an apartment with the smallest number of windows that are not located on the sunny side, or simply equip the room with air conditioning.
11. Limit alcohol consumption in the evening. After 19 hours, it is better not to drink alcohol at all. Alcohol, in the beginning, will make it easy to fall asleep, but sleep will be shallow and intermittent. The more alcohol you drink, the more time your body needs to process it. Sleep during this period will be of low quality, the fast phase will not come on time. As a result, the likelihood of nightmares will increase.
12. You should not drink coffee and strong tea more than two cups a day. After 15.00, you should not drink coffee at all. Caffeine remains in the body for a significant period of time, and its presence can cause disruption and fragmentation (disruption of the integrity) of sleep.

Practicing good sleep hygiene will help eliminate many of the causes of parosomnia, but in some cases it may not be enough to resolve all nightmare problems. Adequate sleep hygiene is a prerequisite for any planned treatment to have the desired positive effect.

Psychiatrist N.A. Kondratenko

Nightmares are plots or individual details of dreams that cause panic, fear, or anxiety. These dreams are vivid in all perception systems, and the plots are perceived so realistically that they make you wake up. Awakening is usually accompanied by a rapid heartbeat, pulse and respiration, and sudden movements. These dreams, like the rest of the plot dreams, arise in the REM sleep phase, where rapid eye movements are characteristic, which means the appearance of visual images.

Nightmares in children are more common than in adults, but there is still a certain line when nightmares become a symptom of mental illness. Such disorders can signal both disorders of the affective sphere and somatic. There are often cases when it is through the plot of nightmares that a person can reveal a disease that has not yet manifested itself at the physical level. Psychologists consider such dreams as a signal of the presence of unconscious or suppressed anxiety, and if you pay attention to recurring nightmares in time, you can prevent not only mental exhaustion, but also real impending problems.

Each person will have their own theme of nightmares, which is based on personal traumatic experiences, the state of the body and psyche.

Nightmares in adults are more associated with psychological and stressful experiences, suppression of emotions and can be expressed in plots of loss of control (inability to escape, scream, open the door), in children they are more justified by physical changes in the body and have more physiological moments (sudden falls into deep burrows , flights, etc.).

Why do I have nightmares at night

The causes of nightmares can be quite varied in their category or depth of issue. So there are dreams caused by a change in metabolism due to a hearty dinner or an excess of sweet and spicy foods, when the brain increases the activity of the whole body to process what has been absorbed. Some medications have a similar effect, so if attacks of night fears have begun, it is necessary to tell the attending physician to change the therapy.

Alcoholic and narcotic substances can have not only a sedative effect, but also activate the nervous system, which leads to nightmarish plots. This happens especially often against the background of withdrawal symptoms.

Disorders of the psychological spectrum, such as depressive reactions, PTSD, an increased level of anxiety, attacks of paranoia, and others have terrible dreams in the list of their symptoms. In the case of PTSD, dreams will contain plots of a traumatic situation, with excessive nervousness, possible options for future fears. It has been observed that lack of sleep also provokes nightmares - in these cases, everything is removed quickly with several sessions of drug sleep.

Any strong emotional experiences are stressful for the body and usually there is not enough daytime and resources to process them. Therefore, nightmares are often a way of the psyche to process incoming strong information that knocks out of the usual rhythm. This may include quarrels, scandals, accidents, as well as childbirth, weddings, unexpected pleasant surprises.

It does not matter how strong emotions are colored - they shatter the nervous system, so the surprise of people why, against the background of sharp positive changes, they start having bad dreams is quite explainable by this fact. Any emotions suppressed during the day lead to an increase in internal tension, the need for relaxation of which is realized by the psyche through nightmares. It doesn't matter what exactly you restrain, both hugs can lead to a terrible dream - only the degree of effort spent on restraint is important, and the more there are, the more terrifying the plot.

Organic brain lesions give nightmares that cannot be removed by psychotherapy and sedatives - this requires a comprehensive treatment of the first disease. It can be oxygen starvation or hypoxia, brain tumors, trauma, infectious and inflammatory diseases, intoxication. With frequent recurring nightmares, it is necessary to consult a doctor (therapist, neuropathologist, psychiatrist) in order to exclude a serious biological pathology.

In addition to internal and psychological moments, external circumstances can spoil sleep. So the temperature of the room (cold or hot), stuffiness or fullness of unpleasant or pungent odors activate the nervous system, make a person wake up. It is a defense mechanism designed to lead to a state of wakefulness when environmental conditions deteriorate.

For example, stuffiness can be a signal that oxygen is running out and you just might not wake up. An uncomfortable bed, the presence of crumbs, extraneous sounds, or bright lighting can impair the quality of sleep, and in combination with the instability of emotions, lead to nightmares. For people with a mobile organization of the nervous system, its sensitivity and general impressionability, nightmares that arise against the background of evening experiences are characteristic. These are horror movies, scary stories read, a news feed about murders and disasters, and other similar moments.

How to get rid of nightmares

If you have nightmares in your nightlife, then you should start with the simplest methods - improving sleep conditions. It is worth taking care not only of the comfort of the bed, its orthopedicity and cleanliness, but also of the general environment, including light, sounds, temperature and the amount of oxygen. Adjust the settings of all gadgets by setting the blue light suppression night mode or exclude their use altogether a couple of hours before bed. Watch your evening habits. This includes the time and amount of food, alcohol, coffee, drugs and nicotine, as well as some medications.

There are many products and aids now available to improve sleep - use them. These include aroma lamps with soothing oils, audio recordings designed to harmonize the emotional background, various nightlights that imitate natural light sources (fires, candles). You can download programs of noises and sounds to fall asleep on your phone, and if nightmares are triggered by unexpected sounds, you can stock up on earplugs.

Learn to relax during the day as well, then it will help to avoid the accumulation of nervous tension and improve the state of the nervous system. A variety of practices from yoga, meditation, visualization, and breathing techniques to help stabilize the emotional state provide the skill of self-soothingness. So you can regulate your condition all day, calm it down before going to bed, and even if you woke up from another horror, you can quickly come to your senses. But in addition to passive and contemplative-soothing activities, include physical activity - this helps to relieve excess stress accumulated during the day. An ideal option would be an evening visit to the pool, where accumulated emotions are released due to physical activity, and general physical relaxation occurs due to water.

Make sleep a ritual that requires timing and sequencing. This will help your psyche to calm down in advance and clear the space. Set yourself up for pleasant hours before bed — let there be time for your daydreaming, talking to nice people, and enjoying slow activities. Get creative and watch pleasant films, take a bath with relaxing oils, and walk in the evening park. You can have a soothing candlelit dinner, no gadgets, with herbal teas or warm milk.

Drug treatment is indicated after an established primary diagnosis. If nightmares are caused by a tumor, then elective surgery is indicated, if it causes a disorder of the depressive spectrum, then antidepressants are prescribed, and anti-anxiety drugs are indicated for stress disorders. These are extreme cases, and most of the nightmares are triggered by increasing levels of stress, so the main activity should be focused on dealing with it. You can independently identify the main stress factors in your life and try to eliminate them, sometimes for this you have to format all your thinking and style of perception.

In the case of difficult situations or the consequences of traumatic situations, if you do not have enough own resources and capabilities to understand and change the situation in your life, you may need to work with a specialist. Usually the therapist works in the key of the subject of dreams, but if they are not related to immediate life events, then other areas are also affected.