Turning Nightmares into a Pleasant Situation With Happy Sounds

Highlights:

Nightmares are a serious issue that can prevent us from getting the much-needed sleep
This could be a sign of underlying emotional issues that are not easy to confront and out of control
But the good news is that listening to positive sounds can reframe our emotions, and stop bad dreams

Playing a sound associated with a positive daytime experience through a wireless headband during sleep may reduce nightmare frequency, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology.

Sleep Talking, Sleep Terrors, Nightmares, sleep, Parasomnias, NREM, deep sleep
Sleep Talking, Sleep Terrors and Nightmares are sleep disorders, that commonly occur in children

‘Listening to positive sounds may manipulate our emotions, which might be possible to curtail the scary dreams that plague our sleep.’

Tweet it Now

New Treatment for Nightmares Holds Promise

Nightmares are fearful memories that re-emerge in dreams, and can sometimes become regular occurrences, visiting people multiple times a week for months on end.

Patients suffering nightmares may be coached to rehearse positive versions of their most frequent nightmares, but in a new study, this therapy is taken to a step further.

There is a relationship between the types of emotions experienced in dreams and our emotional well-being. Based on this observation, the idea that researchers could help people by manipulating emotions in their dreams erupted ().

In this new study, researchers show that people can reduce the number of emotionally very strong and very negative dreams in patients suffering from nightmares.

Are Nightmares Sign of Mental Health Problems?
Frequent nightmares can be a warning sign for insomnia and psychological disorders like anxiety or depression, which increases the risk for development and progression of heart disease.

Can a Positive Sound Stop Nightmare?

Epidemiological studies have found that up to 4 percent of adults have chronic nightmares at any given moment, a condition often associated with waking up during the night and lower-quality sleep.

Patients are commonly prescribed imagery rehearsal therapy, which asks them to change the negative storyline toward a more positive ending and rehearse the rewritten dream scenario during the day.

While effective, some cases are unresponsive. To test whether sound exposure during sleep could boost success, researchers looked at 36 patients, all receiving imagery rehearsal therapy.

Half of the group received no additional treatment, while the other half were required to create an association between a positive version of their nightmare and a sound during an imagination exercise, which they needed to practice daily, and wear a headband that could send them the sound during REM sleep for 2 weeks. This is the sleep stage when nightmares mostly occur.

Mind in a Bind � Alternative Interventions
Clinically it has been observed that stress management is within the realm of homoeopathy.

Wear the Sleep Headband During the Night to Avoid Bad Dreams

Researchers observed a fast decrease in nightmares, together with dreams becoming emotionally more positive. These findings are very promising both for the study of emotional processing during sleep and for the development of new therapies ().

Both groups experienced a decrease in nightmares per week, but the half that received the combination therapy had fewer nightmares post-intervention, as well as 3 months later.

They also experienced more joy in their dreams. The results support that such combined therapy should be trailed on larger scales and with different kinds of populations to determine the extent and generalizability of its efficiency ().

References:

Nightmares(https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares)
Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation(https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01477-4)
Imagery Rehearsal Therapy for Chronic Nightmares in Sexual Assault Survivors With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder(https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/194063)

Source-Medindia

Sleep Patterns - Problems, Prevalence and Persistence in First Three Years of Life
Sleep problems during childhood are common; patterns of sleep problems vary across early development. Screening for sleep problems in the clinic setting is often cursory.