Nightmares, for most, are a haunting reality that lingers into adulthood. Most of the time you can shrug off that uncomfortable feeling, roll over, and go back to sleep, but sometimes the restlessness of your dreams stays with you during wakefulness, making it difficult to fall asleep again.
What if you could control your dreams and turn them into something else? Doctors and researchers at the Maimonides Sleep Arts and Sciences Center’s PTSD Sleep Clinic are doing just that.
Those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have nightmares much more often than others. Dreams are more intense and vivid. Researchers are working with awake patients to alter their dream story. Turn a racing car into a playful pony, an intense situation into a relaxing one, and your nightmare turns into a dream.
This technique is called dream mastery or writing. As part of image rehearsal therapy, it is being used not only to treat people with PTSD, but all people suffering from nightmares.
Although mastery of dreams does not eliminate nightmares for everyone who suffers from them, it does help reduce the intensity and frequency of bad dreams.
However, not everyone agrees with the technique. Dreams have been intensively researched recently and scientists have discovered that dreams work to archive important memories while discarding old ones. Those who oppose the domain of dreams fear that the content of nightmares, although graphic and disturbing, is necessary for the proper storage of memories in the brain. Jungian psychologists in particular are against scripting because they fear that changing parts of the dream will eliminate the opportunity to read what your subconscious is telling you.
Fewer than 10% of adults reported having nightmares as often as once a week, but those who have had traumatic life experiences, such as soldiers and rape victims, report having nightmares at a much higher rate, 90%. The goal is not to disturb everyone’s dreams, but to allow peace at night to those whose sleep is regularly interrupted.