Dream Re-scripting for Nightmares
Dream re-scripting is a technique where you replace neural pathways that promote nightmares with pathways that promote more neutral or positive dream content. Your brain will learn over time that it has some control over how it reacts to emotions at night and that it can choose an alternative pathway to nightmares when it feels stressed. Dream re-scripting is a simplified version of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares which has been shown to be effective in numerous research studies. If you have a history of PTSD or severe trauma related nightmares, I would recommend that you find a psychologist who can do Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares. For everyone else, you can start by simply trying the following:
- Write* out the beginning of a recent nightmare or bad dream you have had, stopping just before anything bad happens.
- Now write down a new second portion of the dream, creating a story that is uplifting, rather than scary or disturbing. The more funny, ridiculous, outlandish that you can make it, the better.
- Read your new dream out loud.*
- Read the new dream out loud every day for 1 week.*
- Repeat as needed each time you have a new nightmare.
*Optional elements. You can write, say or draw the dream according to preference. Reading out loud and repetition are felt to be helpful in creating the new neural pathways that replace the nightmare pathways but even if you do not do these parts you should get some benefit.
Example: The bothersome nightmare is about a man in a black ski mask who knocks on the door, then enters my home with a gun and assaults and shoots the me, at which point I wake up. For the rescript, I imagine hearing a knock on the door and when I go to open it I find it is a beloved friend from college who was always doing crazy pranks. The friend is holding hundreds of balloons and convinces me to take a ride in a chair lifted up by all the balloons. I sit in the chair holding the balloons, then let them go one by one and peacefully drift back to the ground.
