By manipulating emotions using non-invasive techniques, It may be possible to suppress the screams of terror that disrupt our sleep.
A study conducted on 36 patients diagnosed with. nightmare disorder We found that combining two simple treatments reduced the frequency of bad dreams.
Scientists encouraged volunteers to rewrite their most frequent nightmares in a positive light and played sounds associated with positive experiences while they slept.
“There is a relationship between the types of emotions we experience in dreams and our mental well-being.” Psychiatrist Lampros Perogamvros Researchers from the Geneva University Hospital and the University of Geneva in Switzerland explained their results in 2022.
“Based on this observation, we thought we might be able to help people by manipulating their emotions in their dreams. In this study, we found that patients suffering from nightmares are highly emotionally showed that the number of negative dreams can be reduced.
Many people are plagued by nightmares, but it’s not always a simple case of some bad dreams. Nightmares are also associated with poor sleep quality, which in turn is associated with many other health problems.
lack of sleep Anxiety may also increasewhich could result in the following results: insomnia and nightmares. Recent research has shown that The nightmares and sleep disorders An increase was seen During the ongoing global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2.
Given that we don’t really understand why,or howour brains create dreams while we sleep, but chronic nightmares are quite difficult to treat.
One non-invasive method is image rehearsal therapyin which a patient’s most harrowing and frequent nightmares are rewritten to give them a happy ending. They then “rehearse” that rewritten story by telling themselves, trying to overwrite the nightmare.
What you can do with this method is reduce frequency and severity However, this treatment is not effective for all patients.
In 2010, scientists found that playing sounds that had been trained to associate certain stimuli with people while they were asleep. AIDS in enhance memory of the stimulus. This has been named Targeted memory reactivation (TMR) and Perroganvros et al. wanted to find out whether the effectiveness of image rehearsal therapy (IRT) could be improved.
After study participants completed two weeks of dream and sleep diaries, all volunteers were given one IRT session. At this point, half of the group underwent TMR sessions and a connection was made between the positive version of Nightmare and the sound.
The other half served as a control group, imagining less frightening nightmares without being exposed to positive sounds.
Both groups were given headbands of sleep headphones that played the sound of piano chord C69 every 10 seconds during REM sleep, when nightmares are most likely to occur.
THis group was rated asAfter two more weeks of diary writing, and again after three months without any treatment.
At the start of the study, the control group had an average of 2.58 nightmares per week, while the TMR group had an average of 2.94 nightmares per week. By the end of the study, the control group’s nightmares had decreased to 1.02 nightmares per week, while the TMR group’s nightmares had decreased to just 0.19. Even more promising, the TMR group reported an increase in happy dreams.
At 3-month follow-up, the number of nightmares increased slightly in both groups, to 1.48 and 0.33 nightmares per week, respectively. However, the researchers said the frequency of nightmares was still significantly reduced, suggesting that using TMR to support IRT may result in more effective treatment. .
“We were positively surprised by how participants respected and tolerated study procedures, including performing daily imagery rehearsal therapy and wearing sleep headbands at night.” Pero Gamburos said.
“We observed that nightmares rapidly decreased and dreams became more emotionally positive. For us as researchers and clinicians, these findings are an important opportunity for research into emotional processing during sleep and for new treatments. It is very promising for both legal development.”
The team’s research current biology.
A previous version of this article was published in October 2022.
