Most people understand that children have nightmares, but many adults who are experiencing nightmares feel embarrassed to seek help or talk about them.
You aren’t alone in your nightmares. Statistics show that between 50 and 85 percent of adults occasionally have them. The number has risen over the past year due to stress caused by the pandemic.
Overcoming Nightmares
Several techniques exist to overcome nightmares but a lot of these terrifying dreams can be reduced by changing some physical habits at night.
1. Establishing a Nighttime Routine
Deeper sleep leads to fewer nightmares, so that should be a goal. Creating a nighttime routine helps with increasing better sleep patterns.
Changes should include setting regular waking and sleeping times, exercise during the day, keeping a cool and darkroom, and implementing stress-reducing activities.
2. Reduce Alcohol and Food Intake
It is known that over-drinking alcohol and eating late at night affects sleep and can contribute to producing nightmares. While alcohol may produce sleepiness, it can also produce vivid hallucinations.
3. Keep Positivity Up
Nightmares can be reduced by taking in more positive things during the day. Everything you listen to or look at is imputed into your brain and could come out later as dreams. Reduce the amount of news or violent scary movies watched.
4. Change the Ending
One of the problems with nightmares is you feel out of control. You are trying to survive. This is how your body is dealing with stress that you feel is out of your control.
Change the ending of the nightmare. Consciously go through the nightmare and create a happier ending.
Adults can’t always control their dreams but they can control their reactions to them. Understanding why you are having nightmares and making some simple changes will go a long way to reducing them.
