Nightmares in a dream and the origins of their formation. The article describes the reasons for the appearance of restless dreams, and also gives practical recommendations for solving the problem. A nightmare is a rather significant problem that prevents a person from fully resting after the waking phase. If such a fact is not regularly repeated, then you should not worry about this. With systematic nightmares, it is urgently necessary to get rid of a problem that negatively affects the psyche of people.
What is a nightmare
Dream transformation is a section of the study of psychology, which examines the motivation for the emergence of frightening images in the subconscious. In some cases, experts consider this concept to be a symptom of restless legs syndrome and apnea (respiratory arrest).
Some people confuse nightmares in a dream with horrors that arise in the mind of a person. The second aspect is formed during a deep immersion in the kingdom of Morpheus. It occurs during the first hours of falling asleep and in most cases is not fixed by the mind of people. With a strong sense of fear, a superficial analysis of a dangerous situation occurs without transforming vivid pictures and images in the imagination.
Unlike horror, nightmares usually form during REM sleep, which lasts about 20 minutes. Such manifestations are dangerous because during this period the subject feels like a real participant in the events. Upon awakening, people clearly remember what they saw in a dream, and this often becomes a traumatic factor for them.
Causes of nightmares in a dream
The origins of this problem are well understood by psychologists and psychiatrists. Experts advise looking for the causes of nightmares at night in the following life situations:
- Psychological trauma … An insulting word from loved ones or an insult from strangers often deals a significant blow to a person's pride. In the daytime, he may not think about the conflict that has happened, but during sleep, the unpleasant moments experienced may return in the form of a nightmare.
- Physical trauma … After suffering an injury, many people in a dream replay a similar situation that happened to them. It can be a fall from a height, an accident on the water, a car accident, or aggression from an inadequate person.
- Familiarization with media data … Television quite often informs the population about the tragic events that are taking place in the world. Cinema also tries to impress people, after watching which some viewers (especially children) have nightmares.
- Phobia … Suspiciousness, which has become a neurosis, often leads to the fact that a person cannot sleep well. The fear that has formed in him is transformed at night into frightening images.
- Wrong way of life … Overeating at night, abuse of nicotine and alcohol often provoke nightmares. This is also facilitated by a failure in the daily routine, when the waking phase significantly exceeds the period of sleep.
Note! The voiced causes of nightmares clearly depend on the person himself. It is he who is the main scriptwriter of what is being formed in his mind during this period of time.
Ways to deal with nightmares
In order to eliminate the factor that interferes with the full-fledged life of a person, it is necessary to seek the advice of a specialist. Each situation is an individual case, so it is a professional who can understand its origins and consequences.
Medication for nightmares
After a visit to the doctor, you can use the following remedies to get rid of this problem:
- Medications … Prazosin is very often prescribed for people with restless sleep after examining their physical and mental condition. It is worth remembering that it is antidepressants and drugs to regulate blood pressure that can provoke nightmares.
- ethnoscience … For recurring nightmares, it is necessary to use medications or tinctures based on medicinal herbs. In this case, a decoction of hawthorn, rose hips, St. John's wort, chamomile and motherwort will help. For the greatest effect, experts recommend using a collection of all the listed plants and berries. The valerian root known in medicine can be replaced with blue cyanosis, which is 10 times more effective as a sedative than known sedatives. Phytopreparations after cryo-treatment in the form of "Nervo-Vita" and "St. John's Wort P" will also help in the occurrence of night mosquitoes.
Nutritional Features for Avoiding Nightmares
In any case, experts do not recommend eating food after seven in the evening, because it does not have time to be absorbed by the human body. To prevent nightmares from visiting people, they need to adhere to the following rules:
- Eating fruits and vegetables … After 19.00, it is undesirable to eat, but it is not necessary to deny yourself literally everything if you feel hungry. Eaten fruit (banana, citrus, apple) or vegetable (cabbage, carrot, beet) will not allow the stomach to fill up enough to cause further problems. The exception is avocado, which is high in calories and fat, which makes taking this fruit at night undesirable.
- Careful selection of drinks … A glass of warm milk or a decoction of mint will make a person's sleep deep and calm. At the same time, if you want to relax, you should not use coffee, strong tea, energy drinks and carbonated drinks, which additionally stimulate the brain activity of people.
- Avoiding heavy food … Meat, except for rabbit, chicken and turkey, is absorbed by the human digestive system for a long time. Therefore, it is not recommended to eat pork, lamb and beef dishes at night. If you have a desire to enjoy a salad, then it is better to season it with yogurt, and not sour cream or mayonnaise.
- Avoiding products containing sucrose … Nutritionists insist that eating these foods before bed can trigger nightmares. The use of foods such as chocolate, candy, smoothies, and oatmeal should be kept to a minimum.
- Restriction in the use of salty and smoked meats … Usually, preservation and specially processed meat cause increased thirst, which then makes it impossible to calmly rest at night. Interrupted sleep often causes nightmares, which, with such food addictions, will repeat from day to day.
- Refusal from flour and confectionery products … It is worth adhering to this recommendation not only for those people who monitor their weight. Such products take a long time to digest, therefore they become a dead weight for the stomach. As a result, a person sleeps lightly and sees nightmares during the fast phase of night rest.
- Avoiding alcohol … There is a misconception among the people that strong drinks promote good sleep. In fact, when using them, a person quickly relaxes, but in most cases nightmares are provided to him. This happens due to the inhibition of the metabolic process in the brain with its obvious oxygen starvation.
Important! People in adulthood should refuse to eat five hours before bedtime so that they do not have nightmares later with a full stomach. If the meal has already been completed, then nutritionists advise to drink a glass of mineral water without gas, prematurely adding a couple of drops of lemon juice to it.
Psychotherapy to eliminate nightmares during sleep
Experts recommend that their patients use the following methods of dealing with ghostly phenomena during rest:
- Elimination of external stimuli … For some people, even dim light makes it difficult to relax at night. At the same time, a leaking tap and loud music from neighbors can infuriate any person. Against the background of such sounds, which are corrosive to hearing, nightmares often occur. If there is no way to protect yourself from noise, you can purchase earplugs (special earplugs) at the pharmacy.
- Walk before bed … Some people prefer to devote their evening leisure to watching movies, which do not always have a positive storyline. It is better to replace such a pastime with a walk in the park or just in the immediate vicinity.
- Work on stress resistance … If you want to normalize your internal state during sleep, you need to train willpower. To do this, it is recommended to face your fears directly in order to develop a neutral attitude to the situation that has arisen.
- Interesting business … Knitting, embroidering, crossword puzzles, or jigsaw puzzles are very helpful before bed. All these actions help the nervous system to calm down, so that after that a person can fully rest without the formation of nightmares in his mind.
- Meditation and yoga … Such procedures are available even to those people who do not possess the skills of these manipulations. Immediately before bed, you can begin meditation, which should be accompanied by breathing exercises. It is necessary to imagine an endless ocean or an endless field, while sitting in the lotus position (legs crossed, heels are located on opposite thighs).
- Aromatic procedures … Before going to bed, experts recommend filling the relaxation room with the scent of lavender or rose using special candles. For complete relaxation, baths with the addition of pine needles, sea salt or a medicinal collection of chamomile, mint, yarrow, linden blossom, arnica and blackthorn flower do not interfere.
- Relaxation music … If you want to spend a night without nightmares, you can try to immerse yourself in the kingdom of Morpheus to your favorite melody. Moreover, it should not contain aggressive notes. The Internet is replete with offers to download melodies that calm the human psyche.
- Method for analyzing someone else's example … In the legendary film Gone With the Wind, the brave Scarlett O'Hara suffered from the same nightmare that came to her in the night. The horrors stopped when the heroine understood the reason for their occurrence.
- Improvement of the bedroom … First of all, it is worth taking care of the thermal regime in the rest room. Any fluctuations in the temperature in the sleeping room can cause a significant feeling of discomfort in a person. It should also be remembered that it is not worth organizing a recreation area where the office is located.
- Physical exercise … When asked what to do with nightmares in a dream, you need to start working on improving your body. However, experts do not recommend carrying out such exercises just before the resting phase, because the body will be overly overexcited. In this case, it would not hurt to visit the floating pool three hours before the desire to go to bed.
- The method of rehearsing mental images … Every bad dream very often ends at the climax, because the person wakes up. At the same time, it is necessary to play associations in the daytime, coming up with a happy ending to a nightmare.
- Self-hypnosis method … Before falling asleep, you need to focus on the most pleasant episodes of the past day. At the same time, it is recommended to clearly focus your thoughts on the most pleasant things, so that you can then program them for your dreams.
- Watching comedy films … Such a pastime in the literal sense can completely change a person's well-being. You can try to revisit your favorite childhood cartoons to go to bed on a positive note for yourself.
- Acquisition of the amulet of dreams … Some people believe in such things, so they willingly buy all kinds of talismans. An amulet, which can actually be purchased in any antique store, will help a person to spend the night calmly without any discomfort.
How to deal with nightmares - watch the video:
People often wonder how to get rid of nightmares in a dream, because they themselves are not able to control their subconscious. In this case, it is realistic to cope with the problem on your own. In especially difficult situations, it is recommended to seek help from specialists.
