Trying to tackle my nightmares

[NightOwl]

A recurring part of my nightmare is I'm somewhere, (it can be an enclosed room or a lonely deserted shopping centre, etc), and I know I am going to be attacked or I am being attacked; sometimes there are people around me, or everything is desolate but I can't get anyone to hear me or get any help at all.

Sometimes I see people I know right next to me but they can't hear me. So I've wondered about before I go to sleep holding on to a piece of paper that has a drawing of an emergency button that I tell myself before I go to sleep that I can press it if I need help and it will raise the alarm and then I'll get some help. I'm hoping that this will filter through into my nightmare and I can squeeze my hand and it will start to change my nightmare.

I'm still looking into Imagery Rehearsal Therapy and prepared to try a lot of things to change to pattern of my nightmares.

Has anyone here tried anything like this before? If so, has it worked or have you any other ideas that have helped?

Many thanks

NightOwl

 

[Budoaiki]

NightOwl,

I haven't done any image rehearsal therapy but I used to have a problem with nightmares and I still do sometimes, one thing that helped me and still does was I did some research into lucid dreaming. From that I picked up a good piece of information concerning how most people have re-occuring elements in their dreams.

For me it's the sky, if at anytime in my dream I can see the sky it is usually doing something strange, strange clouds formations or the clouds are moving fast or stars in odd patterns or they are moving quickly. Once I see that I know I am dreaming and I can start to control my dream so to speak. It's a hard process to describe but each time I get better at it.

I also do what I call guided dreaming, where I will meditate in bed to bring myself into a dream state where I am in control and drift off into sleep.

The other thing I do to help prevent nightmares is writing. I write about what ever is on my mind before I go to sleep to either make peace with it or change my train of thought. Although sometimes that can actually prevent me from getting enough sleep but more often than not it helps.

LUCID DREAMING

^This site has some really good excerpts and articles on lucid dreaming and dream control.

 

[NightOwl]

Thank you Budoaiki for your reply. The information on lucid dreaming looks really interesting. Surprisingly, although I've heard of lucid dreaming, (it's one of those words that you hear but don't really think that much about it), I've never really looked into the subject. I will start reading up a lot more on it now.

Thank you also for the other suggestions that you've found work for you.

NightOwl