Dream Re-scripting for Nightmares

Dream re-scripting is a technique where you teach your brain that it has some control over how it reacts to emotions at night. Your brain will learn over time that it can choose to create dreams with more neutral or positive emotional undertones which, in turn, will help you feel more relaxed at night. Researchers are not exactly sure why this technique works, but nevertheless it has been shown to be useful in numerous research studies. Follow the instructions below to begin rescripting your dreams.

1. On a separate piece of paper, write out the beginning of a recent nightmare or bad dream you have had, stopping just before anything bad happens.
2. 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.
3. Read your new dream out loud.
4. Read the new dream out loud every day for 1 week.
5. Repeat as needed each time you have a new nightmare.

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.