You may dread going to sleep if you have nightmares.
The causes and effects of these vivid and frightening nightmares are still being studied by scientists.
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The team that conducted the research identified two methods to reduce nightmares without invasive surgery.
Researchers in Geneva say that up to 4 per cent of adult sufferers have chronic nightmares.
They often have poorer sleep quality and wake frequently during the night.
Scientists say that a lack of sleep can lead to health issues such as heart disease, asthma, and lowered immunity.
Researchers asked 36 patients with nightmare disorders to write down their worst nightmares, but in a more positive way.
“There is a relationship between the types of emotions experienced in dreams and our emotional well-being,” Lampros Perogamvros – a psychiatrist at the Sleep Laboratory of the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva and the study’s senior author – explained.
“Based on this observation, we had the idea that we could help people by manipulating emotions in their dreams.”
He said the study – which was published in the journalCurrent Biology It was shown that people with nightmares could reduce their negative, emotionally-charged dreams.
Researchers have also tested another method to reduce bad dreams.
The participants were instructed to engage in an ‘imagination’ exercise, where they would link a positive interpretation of a dream to a particular sound.
Then they asked the children to wear a band at night which would make the noise while in the REM phase of sleep – when nightmares are most common.
Two groups were formed. First, participants were asked to write their dream with a more positive tone. The second group listened to the sound they chose while sleeping.
In both groups, nightmares decreased over the first two weeks.
Even three months later, the group that had received the combined therapies experienced fewer nightmares.
The researchers also found they experienced greater joy in their dreaming.
“We were positively surprised by how well the participants respected and tolerated the study procedures,” Lambros said.
“We observed a fast decrease of nightmares, together with dreams becoming emotionally more positive.
“For us, researchers and clinicians, these findings are very promising both for the study of emotional processing during sleep and for the development of new therapies.”
Previous studies have linked having bad dreams as a child and developing cognitive impairment or Parkinson’s disease later in life.
Experts have revealed the meanings of four nightmares.