Nightmares – the theme is not from the world of fiction. Having once experienced horror in a dream, do not rush to run to a psychotherapist. This is just a signal that you have an unresolved problem in life. Understand yourself, i.e. understand what situation bothers you so much that experiences are embodied in dreams. Solve the problem – the nightmare will disappear. It’s another matter if nightmares haunt you constantly. In this case, they border on fear. This short night’s sleep, lasting from one to several minutes, is accompanied by a heartbreaking cry, while the heart “jumps out” of the chest, the person shakes, he becomes covered with sweat.
Night terrors arise during the deepest phase of sleep, when it is very difficult to wake a person up. Here, medical intervention is already required. Psychologist Valeria Goldberg notes that “anxious sleep is a signal of some kind of personal anxiety, sometimes nightmares even help prevent stress and nervous breakdowns.” To cope with terrible dreams, in addition to eliminating their cause, you also need to disassemble the dream itself. Let’s look at two ways you can figure out what is bothering you and how to deal with it.
The psychological way. It is based on the interpretation of sleep, which is based on the source of dreams, which lies in the subconscious. The reason for nightmares “comes out” from the subconscious as a bad dream. For example, a hostess , tired of endless hassles, may dream that she has fallen into a hollow in the middle of a tree and can not get out of there. Having understood the cause of the dream, strive to eliminate it in life. In this case, the housewife needs to rest and diversify her life.
To die in a dream means personal growth. If in a dream we are trying to escape death, this is interpreted as avoiding the need to grow and develop internally in ordinary life. A lot of truths creep from the subconscious into dreams, we need to decipher them: they contain information that will help to comprehend our life.
Shamanic way. There is no need to interpret the dream, it is necessary to act in it in a certain way. The founders of this method , the senoi , teach to stay in a dream, not to run away from the enemy, but to fight and win. Then the opponent’s power will go to the dreamer. Another option is to call for help, thus gaining allies. The Senoi consider the tiger to be a powerful spirit, modern man has his own heroes-rescuers: Jack ( DiCaprio), Batman, and anyone else. After defeating the enemy, you need to ask him for something for yourself. A gift can come in handy in a dream or in reality. In a dream, it can be a weapon, in life – a valuable idea or the discovery of new qualities in oneself. Thus, according to the Senoi, in a dream you can find a way out of a difficult situation, and our fears are part of ourselves, they must be pulled over to our side and benefitted. Then the nightmare will turn into just a nightmare.
Nightmares are most common in children between the ages of two and six. The main reasons for such dreams are overwork and a change in the daily routine. Children who constantly have terrible dreams are prone to sleepwalking. In this case, Protect them at bedtime: no bedding on the second tier of the bed or on the second floor of the house. Usually nightmares dream in the first 15 minutes of sleep or within an hour, during which time you can wake up the child, then lay him down again, and he will sleep peacefully all night.
Hopefully, these tips will help you take a different look at the nightmare issue so that it stops looking threatening. Pleasant dreams!