Horrific Nightmares

Witch-trial records, and other early-modern writings on witchcraft, reveal that in various European societies people complained of being physically oppressed at night by witches and other supernatural beings, the victims of these nocturnal assaults describing a similar set of symptoms. Contemporary English authors termed the experience the "mare" or "nightmare." In the twentieth century, it has been identified as a manifestation of "sleep paralysis." Medical studies and surveys of the condition help us make better sense of the historical accounts, while an awareness of the historical evidence illuminates modern reports of sleep paralysis experiences.

A nightmare is a disturbing dream that causes the dreamer to wake up feeling anxious and frightened. Nightmares may be a response to real life trauma and experiences. These type of nightmares fall under a special category called post-traumatic stress nightmare (PSN). Nightmares may also occur because we have ignored or refused to accept a particular life situation. Research shows that most people who have regular nightmares have had a family history of psychiatric problems, bad drug experiences, people who have contemplated suicide, and/or rocky relationships. Nightmares are an indication of a fear that needs to be acknowledged and confronted. It is a way for our subconscious to wake up, take notice, and hence pay attention.

Nightmares are quite common in childhood because this is the time of emotional development when we all have to come to terms with raw and primitive emotions such as aggression and rage.

Nightmare is the term currently used to refer to a dream, which causes a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror, or the sensations of pain, falling, drowning or death. Such dreams can be related to physical causes such as a high fever, or psychological ones such as psychological trauma or stress in the sleeper's life, or can have no apparent cause. If a person has experienced a psychologically traumatic situation in life, for example, a person who may have been captured and tortured the experience may come back to haunt them in their nightmares. Sleepers may waken in a state of distress and be unable to get back to sleep for some time.

Occasional nightmares are commonplace, but recurrent nightmares can interfere with sleep and may cause people to seek medical help. A recently proposed treatment consists of imagery rehearsal. This approach appears to reduce the effects of nightmares and other symptoms in acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Treatment for nightmares

People who suffer from nightmares would benefit from the ability to be aware they are dreaming. A pilot study was performed in 2006 showed that lucid dreaming treatment was successful in reducing nightmare frequency. This treatment consisted of exposure to the idea, mastery of the technique, and lucidity exercises. It was not clear what aspects of the treatment were responsible for the success of overcoming nightmares, though the treatment as a whole was successful. Australian psychologist, Milan Colic, has explored the application of principles from narrative therapy with clients' lucid dreams to reduce the impact not only of nightmares during sleep, but also depression, self-mutilation, and other problems in waking life. Colic found that clients' preferred direction for their lives, as identified during therapeutic conversations, could lessen the distressing content of dreams, while understandings about life - and even characters - from lucid dreams could be invoked in 'real' life with marked therapeutic benefits.

Interpreting Nightmares

Every dream has a positive meaning, because interpretation is aimed at identifying a positive message, something the dreamer can take forward. A dream interpretation might show that the dreamer is heading down the wrong path, for example, so the positive meaning of the dream is that the dreamer gets to acknowledge this, to identify what is causing this, and to identify a solution - the key to finding and heading up the right path. Dreams interpretations help us understand our lives better and equip us to deal with the day-to-day challenges of living and progressing in life.  By accepting our fears and phobias we will work towards overcoming them, rather than run away from them.  Accepting that there are problem areas is the first step in finding a solution to resolve them and once on the path of trying to resolve problems, a solution is eminent.  Hence eventually a suppressed emotion has been brought to the surface, satisfactorily dealt with and resolved for good.

Excerpts taken from this article are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. They use material from Wikipedia topics "Lucid Dream" and/or "Sleep".