How to get rid of nightmares?

The fourth stage of sleep is the realm of night terrors. These frightening episodes are something completely different from nightmares. Scary dreams- these are just unpleasant dreams that take place during REM sleep. Most people have about 2 nightmares per month.

Night terrors also occur during non-REM sleep. During stage 4 night terrors, the person experiences panic and may project frightening dream images into outer space. Because night terrors occur when the body is not immobilized, the person may sit up, scream, get out of bed, or start running back and forth. Sufferers of this disorder remember little afterwards. Night terrors most often occur during childhood, but continue to haunt some adults throughout their lives.

How to get rid of a bad dream?

A very bad dream can be worse than any horror movie. We may leave the cinema, but we are often unable to escape our most terrifying dreams. But no matter how unpleasant most nightmares are, you can get rid of them by doing three simple steps. First, describe your nightmare in detail on a piece of paper. Then make the amendments to this dream that you want to have, not forgetting to indicate the details of the new dream.

The third step is mental repetition, in which you replay the altered dream in your mind before falling back into sleep.

Mental repetition can help because it allows a person to become familiar with unpleasant dreams at a time when he is awake and feels safe. Or perhaps it provides mental “reprogramming” of the content of future dreams. Be that as it may, this technique has helped many people.

Traditional medicine treatments

Every adult and every child at least once woke up in a cold sweat because of a nightmare seen in a dream. As children, we were sure that as soon as we grew up, bad dreams would go away, but in reality everything is completely different. Nightmares continue to come to us throughout our lives, it’s just that as we get older, we perceive them more adequately. But in reality, is the nightmare a problem and is it worth dealing with it in any way?

What is a nightmare?. These are dreams that occur during so-called REM sleep. Most often, a person wakes up from a nightmare in a cold sweat, his heart beating faster than usual. There is also such a thing as “night terrors”. This is something akin to a nightmare, only fear arises during the deep sleep phase. These dreams are shorter and simpler, however, the body’s reaction to them is more violent - after such fear, a person can wake up from his own screaming or crying.

Reason Such phenomena can be anything from basic overeating before bed to depression and stress. The cause of a nightmare may be an inadequate reaction of the body to some medications you have taken and a normal stressful situation, but often a nightmare is an alarm bell, signaling that your problem exists at a psychological level. Of course, if you dream of horrors no more than once a year, then there is no reason to worry, but if you systematically wake up because of them, then think about it, most likely you need to consult a professional psychologist.

It is best to expose the root of the problem; if you are guilty of some of the drugs you are taking, then consult the doctor who prescribed these drugs about replacing or reducing the dose. If you think that a disease is to blame, put all your efforts into healing it. If obvious reasons no, then delve into yourself; most likely, you are tormented by your inner fears and worries. Remember what occupies your head, perhaps you know some terrible secret, and it does not give you peace. Try talking about this with someone close to you. If you don’t want to share your problems loved one, consult a psychologist. We, in turn, offer you several ways to recover from nightmares.

You must normalize your daily routine. Your bed should be large enough for you to sleep comfortably. For the time of the so-called treatment, it is better to give up horror films, thrillers, replace watching these films with a warm bath with foam, if you live with a loved one, invite him to give each other a massage. Sex at night will also drive away unpleasant thoughts from you and allow you to fall asleep in a relaxed state.

It is not recommended to drink coffee or strong tea at night. Replace these drinks with warm milk with honey or green tea with lemon. To improve your condition and generally calm your body, you can make yourself a chamomile decoction; it has a beneficial effect on the body. Lighted incense sticks will relax you well (be careful when choosing aromas, a strong and pungent smell will not do you any good, and, of course, do not forget to extinguish candles and sticks before going to bed to avoid fires).

When you go to bed, think about the good, forget all the negative incidents and remember all the good things that happened to you during the day.

Treatment with folk remedies

There are many traditional methods fighting nightmares.

How to get rid of nightmares using folk remedies

How to get rid of nightmares

Nightmares are a common thing for modern people. They come suddenly, numbing a person’s soul. Many of us, having experienced nightmares, wake up in a cold sweat and cannot come to our senses for a long time. One question revolves in the head of such a person: “Where am I? Did this really happen to me?” It’s not bad if a person does not have nightmares all the time, but if they keep a person awake every night, it is highly recommended to seek advice from a specialist.

Night terrors most often occur during REM sleep, which lasts from a few minutes to half an hour. They are considered nothing more than a non-physiological sleep disorder. As a rule, night terrors end with a person waking up in fright with a gradual return of the sense of time and space. The eyes of a person who has experienced fright open wide, the person becomes covered in sweat, emits a heartbreaking scream, he is overcome by trembling, his heart jumps out of his chest, and the person himself is in a state of panic. During this stage of REM sleep, waking a person is an impossible task. However, often after a few minutes of panicky behavior the person falls back into a sleepy state and has no memory of what happened the next morning.

The main reason that provokes the appearance of night fears in a person is the strongest emotional experiences and shocks that a person experiences during the day. There is no pathology in emotional experiences, and therefore in isolated cases of night fears a person is able to cope on his own. If night terrors begin to regularly haunt a person, this indicates the presence of severe stress, aggression and anxiety, and therefore the help of a specialist is recommended, since a person is not able to solve this problem on his own.

Nightmares occur during the sleep phase. Unlike night terrors, when waking up a person remembers well what happened. No matter how stupid and absurd the situation in a nightmare may be, this dream is always characterized by a dynamic plot and a special frightening effect. Despite the special fear that nightmares cause in a person, they are, as a rule, not accompanied by physiological reactions in the form of increased breathing, pulse, or sweating. Nightmares are based on frequent nervous shocks and stress to which a person is exposed during the day.

Very often, a person tends to overly dramatize the essence of a nightmare, without even understanding its real essence. A dream book can help a person with this. As a rule, if a person sees the death of a loved one in a dream, starting from the next morning he will be very scared and worried about the life of this person, it will really seem to him that his near and dear person will soon leave this world. However, if you understand this dream better, you will find that this dream does not at all foreshadow any death in real life. According to the dream book, the death of a loved one is not at all a bad omen. This means nothing more than a person’s rejection of life’s clichés and old stereotypes. So, before you panic about the horror of any nightmare that came to you in a dream, you first need to figure out what this dream actually means.

In order to move on to considering ways to get rid of nightmares, let’s figure out why we actually have these nightmares.

1. Frequent nightmares can often be caused by a physical illness or disease occurring in a person. These dreams are especially terrible when they are associated with those parts of the body in which the disease develops. So, if a person dreams every night of a stabbing object (knife or sword) being stabbed into his stomach, this may indicate the development of chronic gastritis in the person. If a person dreams that his body is on fire, he may experience increased body temperature and fever the next morning.

2. Very often, the cause of nightmares is an ordinary physical irritant (the ringing of a mobile phone or alarm clock, noise outside the window, the fall of an object and the sound accompanying this process, etc.). If a person wakes up from the sounds of a physical stimulus, he will immediately understand what happened and plunge into a pleasant sleep, which nothing can stop him until the morning. If a person does not wake up until the morning, and exposure to the sound of a physical stimulus causes discomfort, in the morning the person will have a feeling of unsuccessful sleep, which will negatively affect the person’s general condition. Despite sleeping for 8-9 hours, a person will feel like he hasn’t slept a wink. All this will be accompanied by a state of lethargy, fatigue and reluctance to do anything, and an increased need for sleep.

3. Nightmares can reveal a person’s hidden fears and conflicts. These fears are felt by the person’s subconscious throughout the day, it is regularly fueled by thoughts about some terrible event or fear, and in a dream the subconscious throws these fears out, and all the terrible situations that were hidden from him throughout the day in the depths arise before the person. in the subconscious. So, if you are terribly afraid of heights, you can constantly tell yourself: “I’m so afraid of heights!”, and just the thought of heights puts you into a state of stupor. You accumulate a fear of heights in your subconscious, and during sleep you are highly likely to dream that you are falling down. You shouldn’t be surprised by what happened - after all, you yourself repeated the same fear until it was freed from your subconscious.

4. Sometimes nightmares complement a person’s self-preservation instinct, strengthen his phobias and, thereby, help a person avoid similar phenomena in real life. Such nightmares are called prejudicial ones.

Many people who have experienced the negative impact of nightmares are interested in the question: “is it possible to get rid of nightmares once and for all.” Most likely the answer will be negative, since nightmares are the result of the work of a person’s subconscious, and all the secrets of the human subconscious have not been discovered to this day. However, this does not mean that now you should sit back and accept all nightmares with honor. Of course, there are ways to deal with nightmares that will help a person get rid of obsessive thoughts before bedtime and create best conditions for a restful, sound sleep.

1. Determine the cause of the nightmare and eliminate it. So, if the cause of nightmares is a disease, it is necessary to direct all efforts to get rid of this disease. Once the illness passes, the nightmares will also disappear. When the cause is eliminated, the effect changes - it's simple. But what to do if the cause of nightmares is unclear? In this case, it is necessary to combat nightmares through the analysis of internal phobias. Memories of what life situation are so painful for you that they haunt you even when you sleep? What are you most afraid of in a dream? Already after the first decisive actions aimed at eliminating the cause of the nightmare, a person’s sleep will become much calmer and more peaceful.

2. Try in every possible way to avoid the influence of external irritants on you before going to bed. First of all, this applies to horror films, watching which 99.9% guarantees a person the appearance of a nightmare that will negatively affect the person from the inside. Also, you should not play computer games that involve violence, even during the day, and even more so before bed. Another strong irritant that can lead to nightmares is conversations on topics unpleasant for a person, which cause fear and annoyance in him. Try to talk and think exclusively about pleasant things before going to bed, watch TV shows that put you in a positive mood, and listen to light, relaxing music just before bed.

3. Sleep hygiene is above all! Very often, nightmares are caused by insufficient air in the room. Therefore, be sure to ventilate the room before going to bed, and then close the windows tightly so that street noise does not interfere with your sleep. Don't forget to turn off the TV, computer, and your cellular telephone. The mattress and pillow play a very important role in your sleep - they should be comfortable for you.

4. One of the reasons for your nightmares may be a fear of the dark. In this case, you should not create pitch darkness in the room, otherwise you will constantly feel like something is threatening you. Try to make objects in the room visible.

5. Use sedatives. If you've tried various ways getting rid of nightmares, but none of them had the desired effect, drink a sedative at night - it includes exclusively natural ingredients that have a calming effect on the human psyche. Using this medication before bed will help control the flow. negative thoughts, constant concentration on problems. As a rule, the sedative collection includes peppermint leaves, motherwort herb, rhizomes with roots of valerian officinalis, licorice roots, and hop cones. You can also take a few valerian tablets before bed. The main thing to remember is that valerian tablets can lead to dependence on the drug, and therefore you need to be careful not to overdose.

6. Visualization. Many people know about the true benefits of visualization, but only a few use their knowledge in practice. Visualization can not only cure a person of many ailments, bring harmony and happiness into his life, but also save a person from nightmares. To begin visualization, you need to take a comfortable position, lying on your back, perhaps turning on light relaxing music (sounds of nature). Close your eyes and imagine that you are in a place where you have long wanted to visit - mentally transport yourself there. Let's say this is a beach. A light breeze is blowing, seagulls are singing loudly, circling over the water, and the sound of the sea surf is barely audible. You are lying on the beach completely alone, nothing bothers you or bothers you. You don't need to rush anywhere, the whole world belongs to you and only you. An incredible wave of relaxation envelops your body, your mind rests. The world is beautiful.

And now that you have imagined a place where you feel comfortable and calm, every time before going to bed you can mentally return there. After just a few uses of visualization, your sleep will normalize and you will forget about the existence of nightmares.

7. More rest. Nightmares most often come to people who devote most of their time to being awake, completely forgetting that in order to fully restore vitality, a person needs to sleep at least 8 hours a day. Lack of sleep often causes the development of depression and stress, and depressive states, in turn, become the key to a wonderful, wonderful... nightmare (pardon the pun). Therefore, if you feel that your eyes are sticking together, quit everything and go to rest. If you do not have enough time allotted for work, do not sacrifice rest time for this; rather, think about how you can make your work more efficient (for example, reduce the time required for an operation that is not significant for the success).

8. Stop drinking strong coffee and tea before bed, don’t smoke or drink alcohol. All of the above leads to sleep disturbances due to the fact that caffeine and nicotine are removed from the body for a long time. Alcohol completely weakens the nervous system, and in nightmares a person begins to experience not only what he thought about during the day, but also nightmares that the person had never even thought about. All those who claim the benefits of drinking alcohol for sleep are deeply mistaken. Of course, alcohol “knocks out” a person’s brain, puts it into a state of sleep, and the person falls asleep faster, but such a person has nightmares several times more often, and in the morning he feels, to put it mildly, not very well.

9. Aromatherapy. Use aroma lamps to normalize sleep. A few drops of aromatic oil of bergamot, ylang-ylang, patchouli, lemon balm or sandalwood strengthens the human nervous system, allowing it to prevent nightmares. However, despite the positive effect of aroma lamps and candles, you should not use them for too long a period of time before bed, as the pungent odor can cause headache, which will only contribute to the appearance of nightmares. Scented candles should be extinguished before going to bed.

So, dear reader, be attentive to your mental health, healthy image life and... follow the recommendations of this article - and then no nightmares will interfere with your sound, healthy sleep.

Remedies for nightmares

Did you wake up again in drops of cold sweat, moaning in horror? I had a nightmare. Know that you have the power to get rid of unwanted and scary dreams.

Proven remedies for nightmares:

Evening Drink Specials

Drinking the following drugs directly before bedtime can save you from nightmares:

Physical exercise

Before lying down on a soft bed, it is recommended to do exercises to avoid nightmares. Better yet, organize a full training session. The more effort you put in, the lower the likelihood of an annoying nightmare.

If exercise or training is not possible, then you should try to master a meditative state or do yoga.

Maintaining sleep hygiene

Before a sweet sleep, you should not overeat, especially with meat, baked goods or smoked meats. Sleeping with a full stomach can be disturbing, and nightmares come quite often.

The atmosphere in the bedroom matters. If there is stuffiness, stench or dust in the sleeping area, naturally, terrible dreams will come. Ventilate the bedroom, install a high-quality air conditioner or at least a humidifier.

Pay attention to your favorite place - the bed. The feather bed should not sink by 10-20 cm, the mattress should be soft and springy to support a tired body. A hard bed is also not acceptable if you are not used to such experiments. The pillow is of medium size, not too flat and does not force the neck to bend sharply.

It is advisable that the sleeping place be away from the table, personal computer, TV. If it is not possible to allocate a room for relaxation, during renovation, zone the space, separating a special corner for sleeping in calm, pastel colors.

Eliminating the Causes of Nightmares

If the nightmare is caused by snoring, treat apnea; if you dream that something is piercing pain, look for a disease of this organ or limb. It is also better to monitor fatigue and take action by resting more - and not at the computer, but in the lap of nature.

Washing before bed

Washing with cool water relieves nightmares, Japanese scientists have found. But Russian “whisperers” and “grandmothers” have long known about this remedy against nightmares, adding another conspiracy to it.

Psychotraining

Read techniques for managing dreams. And in a nightmare, try to overcome it without avoiding danger. According to statistics, if you realize your capabilities in a dream and begin to control both nightmares and other dreams, your life will extend by 5-8 years.

You can also imagine a protective cocoon of bright and luminous energy that separates you from the cold and darkness of the surrounding night world.

Untested remedies for nightmares:

Conspiracies against nightmares

The best way to deal with nightmare visions is to light a candle in the twilight of the night, and throw the wax soot that drips from it, after complete melting, into a dish of water, saying: “I remove fears, fears, commotion from the slave (name) and lock it with 12 locks and constipation May peace come to the slave (name). In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen". You need to wash your face with this water and quickly throw it outside.

There are also good, simpler rituals. For a glass of evening drink, say “Don’t sleep, go away. Sleep, come!” and have a drink. Don’t forget to look at the interpretation of the dream in our dream book.

When you want to save a loved one from a nightmare, you need to whisper in the back of his head: “Let the road until dawn become bright for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!".

Be sure to tidy up your bedroom on the first three days of the full moon. You should throw away those things whose purpose is unknown, or you no longer have any use for them.

If the above methods do not work, contact a psychologist.

If you are afraid of what you dreamed and want to forget it as quickly as possible, say this sentence several times and try to fall asleep again.

• What do nightmares mean?

Why do I have nightmares?

Very often nightmares are caused physiological reasons– illness, pregnancy, elevated temperature, consumption of alcohol and certain medications, sleep apnea syndrome, overeating heavy and spicy foods.

How to get rid of nightmares

Try to determine the causes of nightmares and eliminate them. If you are unable to identify the reasons on your own, contact a psychologist who will work with your internal phobias.

Here's how to sleep with a hangover

In the vast majority of cases, hangover syndrome is accompanied by insomnia. It is very difficult for a person in this state to fall asleep without sleeping pills. After a protracted binge, his dreams are replaced by nightmares. There are various ways to relieve the syndrome. Together with their relief, the problem of how to sleep with a hangover is solved.

Types of insomnia after heavy drinking

Alcoholic insomnia aggravates the negative processes occurring in the human body during withdrawal syndrome. A patient exhausted by an illness does not know how to sleep after a binge. All this happens against a background of nervous and physical exhaustion. There are several types of alcoholic insomnia:

• Man can't long time fall asleep. Insomnia after heavy drinking is accompanied by headaches and increased nervous tension.
• Poor sleep that is constantly interrupted by nightmares.
• Complete insomnia after alcohol, accompanied by hallucinations and anxiety, which is borderline with alcoholic delirium.

There are various ways to combat insomnia at home. Disturbance in sleep patterns continues for a long time even after a person completely stops drinking alcohol.

Causes of sleep disturbances

Very often you can hear the complaint from people who drink for a long time: “I can’t sleep after drinking alcohol.” Many of them find this surprising. Alcohol generally causes drowsiness. This reaction of the body to strong drinks is observed in people in the early stages of the development of alcoholism.

The main reason why it is impossible to fall asleep after a binge lies in the overstrain of the nervous system caused by alcohol intoxication.

Not everyone suffers from alcohol-induced insomnia. “I can’t sleep with a hangover,” you can most often hear from people suffering from autonomic disorders. The cause of insomnia in this case is hypersympathicotonia. Another common cause of insomnia from alcohol - severe form of depression. A person is seized by a state of panic that does not allow him to sleep.

The general painful condition that accompanies withdrawal syndrome also greatly interferes with restful sleep. It becomes one of the reasons why hangovers cause nightmares. During this period, a person has a headache, a burning sensation in the solar plexus and heaviness in the pancreas, nausea, and vomiting.

How to restore sleep

There are various ways to restore sleep after binge drinking. One of them is medicinal. In this case, they take sleeping pills and sedatives. Very often, people who cannot sleep after binge drinking increase the dosage of medications. This is strictly forbidden.

An overdose of drugs can provoke a sharp deterioration in a person’s health and cause death.

Before taking medications after binge drinking at home, it is necessary to cleanse the human body of ethanol breakdown products. A large number of medications cannot be combined with alcohol. Independent treatment can only be carried out by those who know well how and what to do in such situations. .

What medications should I take?

There are various medications that can be used to normalize sleep after binge drinking at home. Conventionally, they can be divided into two large groups - strongly and weakly acting. Toxicologists do not recommend drinking any remedy for a hangover without consulting a doctor.

Mild-acting medications include tinctures of motherwort, valerian and other herbal decoctions, as well as grandaxin, glycine, biotredin, novopasit and some others. Strong drugs include such as elenium, diphenhydramine, alzolam, etc.

The problem of how to fall asleep after a binge should be solved in conjunction with the solution to the problem of getting rid of nightmares. They are carried out together with the complete relief of hangover syndrome.

Folk remedies

People have many ways to fall asleep quickly after a hangover and not see any scary visions. They are quite simple and well known to a large number of people. After drinking heavily, a person's production of melatonin, which is responsible for sleep, is disrupted. Its increased amount in the blood disrupts the body’s sleep rhythm.

First of all, it is necessary to get rid of alcohol in the human body as much as possible. To do this, you need to rinse his stomach and force him to take a warm shower. After this, the patient should eat chicken broth, drink a large number of weakly brewed tea with lemon and honey or 1-1.5 liters mineral water. All this will help relieve the effects of a hangover. The human body will come out of a stressful state, calm down and sleep will come as a defensive reaction.

• Take different medications at the same time.
• Combine medications with alcohol.
• Use medications without consulting a doctor.

What to do with nightmares?

Many people can have nightmares in their dreams even without alcohol. You don’t always dream about them only after a binge. Such visions are characteristic of people with a sick psyche. Some doctors believe that rare nightmares are even beneficial for the functioning of the human brain. Drinking alcohol only intensifies the nightmares. Alcohol vapor prevents a person from breathing. This creates images of suffocation in a person’s head, which causes a physical reaction in the person’s body.

Frequently recurring nightmares should alert a person. These are more serious problems than the consequences of drinking strong drinks. Many people try to get rid of the nightmare visions that haunt them with the help of wine or vodka. This only makes the problem worse. Only a psychiatrist can help cope with it. The cause of nightmare visions is overexcitation of the nervous system.

Herbal, pine or honey baths help relieve it perfectly. They can relieve a person from insomnia, anxiety and night terrors. 2 hours before bedtime, it is good to take a glass of water with a tablespoon diluted in it. natural honey. For a herbal bath it is better to use motherwort. A decoction of dry poppy heads will help you fall asleep and get rid of bad dreams. For 0.5 liters of boiling water, 3-4 medium poppy heads are enough.

What should you not take if you have a hangover?

Each person’s body is individual and reacts to alcohol and drugs differently. There is a list of medications that absolutely everyone should not take to combat insomnia after drinking drinks containing alcohol. Among them:

• Phasepam. The drug should not be taken until the breakdown products of alcohol are completely eliminated from the body. He calls side effects in the form of aggression, hallucinations, loss of coordination of movements and many others. During sleep after taking the drug, a person may experience profuse vomiting and suffocation.
• Corvalol, Valoserdin and Valocardin. Phenobarbital, which is part of these drugs, cannot be combined with alcohol. This can lead to damage to brain cells and disruption of brain function.
• Phenibut, Afobazol. During a hangover, these drugs do not help cope with insomnia at all. The glycosides they contain can have a negative effect on heart function.

Only desperate and unreasonable people can use medications together with alcohol. Their use without consulting a doctor can lead to failure of a person’s internal organs, heart attack, stroke and even death. Even a slight degree of intoxication can be critical.

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This article is devoted to the mythological and medical aspects of such a phenomenon as a nightmare. It also gives tips on how to get rid of nightmares.

Since ancient times, people have associated their terrible dreams with the tricks of evil spirits and ghosts. The word Nightmare comes from the name of a demon from Scandinavian mythology. The demon's name was Mara, hence derivative words such as “nightmare”, “kikimora”. The fact is that the word “mara”, “sea”, “mor” in most languages ​​means death. Probably, such similarity of names has remained since the times of the Indo-European language, when most of the peoples of Eurasia had one language.

Later, the creatures that send nightmares began to be called Incubi. The very first mention of an incubus is found in English and Celtic mythology. Over time, all creatures that send bad dreams began to be called incubi. The word “incubus” itself means “lying on the chest”, “dancing on the chest”. Moreover, all such creatures were always depicted on the human chest. It was believed that the Nightmare climbs onto the chest and begins to strangle the person. It was also believed that incubi thus became even stronger and could send damage to a person.

Our ancient ancestors were closer than ever to answering the question “What causes nightmares?” The answer lies precisely in the fact that all the incubi danced and lay on the human chest.

It turns out that scary dreams are very often caused not so much by psychological problems, but by pressure on a person’s chest. If you fall asleep and during sleep your chest is in a compressed position (hands on your chest, lie down with your stomach), then you will have a bad dream. This rule has no exceptions.

The thing is that when there is pressure on your chest, you begin to have very slight breathing problems. The brain considers this dangerous to health and urgently takes you out of sleep.

A scary dream is a normal reaction of the body to a stressful or health-threatening situation. The fact is that when you wake up in an emergency, consciousness suddenly switches on. Have you paid attention to the fact that when you usually wake up, you still “come to your senses” for some time, you want to sleep for a couple more minutes, but you practically don’t remember the dream you had. Your brain just needs to transition from sleep to wakefulness, and do so smoothly. However, if you wake up from a nightmare, you wake up abruptly. Your breathing is rapid, your consciousness is in extreme mode, you don’t feel like sleeping at all, and you clearly remember your nightmare.

Having a nightmare every one or two weeks is normal. However, if nightmares constantly torment you, then you should think about your mental state. In half of the cases, scary dreams are associated with stress, anxiety, and fear. In fact, stress and anxiety are also associated with fears. The main thing in the fight against nightmares is not the doctor or the medications, it is your fearlessness. Being afraid is generally stupid (not to be confused with the instinct of self-preservation). You don't want to spend your whole life living in fear, do you?

The plots are directly related to your fears. If you are preparing for a public speech and are very nervous, then you will most likely dream about how you fail at this speech. If the fear is not clearly expressed, or the nightmare is due to pressure on the chest, then the plot usually takes the form of pursuit, falling, etc.

Due to the fact that the plots of nightmares are well remembered (sometimes for a lifetime), they are often taken as a basis by artists, writers, and musicians. Salvador Dali painted his dreams, Stephen King wrote books about them, etc. Who knows, maybe your nightmare will also take on material form (in a good way), and become the basis for a film or book.

This official medical term should in no way be confused with the term “nightmare”. Nightmares occur during REM sleep and are well remembered. Night terror works differently...

Night terrors occur during deep sleep when dreams are not occurring. Moreover, the person does not remember this, although he experienced great fear. What does it look like? A man suddenly jumps up in the middle of the night and begins to shake, wave his arms and scream. After this, the person falls asleep again, and the next morning he does not remember anything, thinking that he slept peacefully.

Night terror can also be expressed in a calmer form. A person can simply sit on the bed. Or he may start screaming quietly and panicking. With night terror, it seems that the person is not sleeping, since he can walk and his eyes are open. But this is not entirely true. The person is still in a state of deep sleep, which means he simply does not notice either you or the surrounding reality. And unlike a nightmare, night terror is associated only with mental state, and cannot happen due to pressure on the chest.

If you think that night terrors only happen to completely unbalanced people, then you are deeply mistaken. Everyone has night terrors. You just don't remember it. Ask your relatives if they have observed you behave like this in the middle of your sleep :)

This medical term has not yet been well studied. It has little to do with nightmares, but is closely related to the mythology of incubi and Nightmares. Sleep paralysis is a painless paralysis of the muscles upon awakening. It is often accompanied by hallucinations. In ancient times, it was believed that it was a genie or a brownie holding you, not allowing you to move.

Sleep paralysis lasts up to 2 minutes. It occurs in people suffering from lack of sleep and psychological weakness. In this case, sleep paralysis occurs only when waking up naturally. If you get up in the morning to the sound of an alarm clock, if someone wakes you up, then sleep paralysis will not affect you.

There is no need to be afraid of nightmares and other sleep-related problems. There's something for everything scientific explanation. Bad dreams are just as beneficial as good ones. In any case, you will wake up and say with relief: “Thank God, this is just a bad dream.”

How to get rid of nightmares?

It is nightmares that make you feel a sense of panic and extreme anxiety. Having established the true cause of their appearance, it is possible to determine ways to combat them. So, this article will discuss the question of how to get rid of nightmares.

Often night fears haunt a person due to a disease that originates in the body - if this is the case, then by directing all efforts to eliminate it, dreams will gradually go away. Decisive actions in resolving this issue must be taken in relation to internal phobias. Throughout the day, a person is exposed to various life situations, many of which are associated with the experience of inexplicable fears. In a dream, they are thrown into the subconscious and turn into a real nightmare - in this case, everything should be aimed at analyzing existing phobias. For example, if there is a fear of the dark, then small night lights will help ensure a restful sleep - thus, interior items in the room will become visible, therefore, the fear associated with darkness will disappear.

A good night's rest ensures the creation comfortable conditions for sleep. An unventilated room, extraneous noises - these should also be the reasons for such visions. A comfortable pillow and mattress are also important attributes in this matter. The consequence of a violation of the work and rest regime is the occurrence of depressive states, which, in turn, can provoke unwanted nighttime manifestations. Proper organization vital activity will greatly reduce the risk of their occurrence, therefore, it will help both get rid of nightmares and normalize sleep.

In many cases, sedatives of natural origin, taken shortly before bedtime, can help cope with nightmares - their effect will be aimed at distracting from negative thoughts and allowing you not to focus on problems.

Strong tea, coffee, an obligatory cigarette before bed, alcoholic drinks as a “sedative” will only lead to the fact that the active substances of the above products - caffeine and nicotine - will act on a person throughout the night, while alcohol will completely generate in the sleeper’s head terrible plots of night dreams.

One of the common causes of nightmares is eating a large meal before going to bed. Thus, a full stomach, which is obliged to digest the food received, provokes the brain into active activity, thereby not allowing the body to completely relax and rest.

People who use the visualization technique can say goodbye to the existence of nightmares - its essence is to imagine situations that are more pleasant for visual images. So, having created a certain image, you can constantly reproduce it in your thoughts while preparing for bed - to normalize it, this measure will be quite effective.

As a preventive measure, it is worth trying the use of aromatherapy, only here you should take into account the period of use of candles and aroma lamps - it should be short-term. If night terrors are recurring and pose a threat to health, then, of course, you will need the help of a specialist.

Having analyzed all of the above, everyone will determine their own cause of restless sleep and find the “recipe” necessary to get rid of this scourge. Consequently, a person will be able to both get rid of nightmares and significantly improve his physical condition!

How can you get rid of nightmares?

The temperature in the room should not be too high and not too low. A person who is very tightly wrapped and covered, under a heavy blanket, in a loose pillow, may dream that he is being strangled.

Pajamas should not cause discomfort (elastic bands, tight seams, tight collars). The bed is wide enough, not too soft, but not hard either. Remove mechanical alarm clocks so that they don’t tick while you sleep, and turn electric ones so that the numbers don’t “look” at you. There is no need for extra flickering in the room, and it will still give a signal, even if it is turned towards the wall. By the way, neither an electronic alarm clock, nor a radio, nor other electrical appliances should be placed close to the bed. It is better if they are not in the room at all. The mobile phone is taken out first!

It is better to remove flowers and perfumes with sharp, heavy odors.

Nightmares. Nightmarish dreams.

Nightmares or frightening dreams that threaten life or safety charge us with negative emotions for the whole day. It is estimated that about 4% of the adult population experiences nightmares; among children and adolescents the percentage is much higher, at approximately 70%.

Causes of nightmares

Nightmares can have different origins and go “hand in hand” with mental disorders. Conditions that can cause nightmares include substance abuse, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and traumatic stress disorder.

There are several types of typical nightmares. Special attention deserve nightmares associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. They occur in up to 80% of patients and are the most easily diagnosed nightmare because the stress underlying nightmares comes from a traumatic experience, such as an accident, a war zone, rape, or the loss of a loved one. This type of parasomnia can accompany the patient throughout his life.

Recurring nightmares are based on real traumatic events from the past. Scientists suggest that recurring dreams are stored in memory in the form of a fixed pattern (fixed in the memory of the stress experienced). The nightmare scenario is most often autobiographical. Unlike other memories, a bad dream reproduces the events of the past in full, making you worry not only at night, but also throughout the day.

Severe stress can cause nightmares. Thus, a “vicious circle” is formed, stress causes a realistic nightmare, and the nightmare has a strong negative impact on the person’s feelings after awakening. The mechanism repeats itself over and over again. The higher the stress level, the worse the nightmare. Trying to avoid nightmares will ultimately lead to REM sleep disturbances and early awakenings. Such a person will feel not rested and not enough sleep.

Nightmares may be the result influence of psychoactive substances, which disrupt the functions of mediator (conductor) systems in the brain (mainly associated with norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine, as well as acetylcholine and gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA).

What symptoms should you consult a doctor for?

To get rid of nightmares you need to be treated under the supervision of a specialist. The problem is that most patients do not recognize this sleep disorder as a disease. Contacting a certified specialist with work experience is the best and effective method combating insomnia and nightmares.

Symptoms that require contacting a psychotherapist or somnologist:

- experiencing great difficulty falling asleep.

- you cannot sleep longer than 30 minutes,

- you wake up several times during the night and then cannot fall back to sleep,

- repeated episodes of awakening from sleep are accompanied by feelings of intense anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, disgust and other negative emotions associated with the content of the dream,

- awakening occurs in “full combat readiness”, with a feeling of confusion of thoughts, the memory of the content of the dream immediately comes very clearly,

- the presence of a real event from their past, which carries negative emotions and echoes the content of the dream.

Treating conditions that cause nightmares

Luckily, there are many treatments and ways to combat nightmares. People who have managed to overcome this disease have improved sleep quality, they wake up rested and are less overtired at work and sleep less during the day. Getting rid of nightmares improves your overall physical condition. Every nightmare is unique and only a doctor can decide what type of treatment to use.

There are several ways to eliminate nightmares.

1. First, you should analyze your habits related to falling asleep, because in many cases a small modification can significantly improve sleep quality.

2. You can also resort to drug therapy(always used under medical supervision.). Sleeping pills are most often used in the treatment of sleep disorders. Their effectiveness mainly depends on the cause of the nightmares. Drug therapy is best suited for treating parasomnias associated with substance abuse and waking nightmares.

Sleeping pills: Bromisovalum, Diphenhydramine, Doxylaminum, Temazepamum, Phenobarbitalum, Flunitrazepamum, Flurazepamum, Estazolamum, Zaleplonum, Zolpidem pideum ), Zopiclon (Zopiclonum), Clomethiazole (Clomethiazolum), Midazolam (Midazolamum), Nitrazepam (Nitrazepamum).

All drugs are addictive when used for more than 4 months and are strictly prescription drugs. Hypnotics of the diazepine group are best tolerated.

A safer drug in the treatment of parosomnia is melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland (located in the brain, part of the photoendocrine system), but after thirty years it produces too little of it. Disturbances in circadian (cyclical) sleep rhythms occur: increased fatigue, depressive syndrome develops. You can compensate for the lack of melatonin in the body using synthetically synthesized melatonin. It is sold in pharmacy chains under the same name, only from different manufacturers (Italian, Indian and Russian).

Lavender flowers- natural sedative, helps improve sleep. It is used not only as a medicine for parasomnias, but also as a means to alleviate stress and irritability. Lavender is often added to baths. Bouquets of plant flowers placed in the bedroom can ensure healthy sleep.

Melissa grass— an infusion of lemon balm leaves acts as a sedative. Treats sleep disorders. Especially recommended for older people.

Valerian root– an infusion of the plant helps to fall asleep, calms, and eliminates insomnia. Valerian is also used to combat stress.

Each medicine contains substances that interfere with the body's natural cycle. Therefore, you need to be careful and moderate in the use of sleep medications. Chronic use of herbs and other natural medicines can lead to psychological dependence. Swallowing pills before bed becomes a kind of ritual that is repeated every night. Falling asleep naturally will become impossible, as the brain is constantly sending signals prompting you to take the medicine.

3. Psychotherapy. The best choice of psychotherapeutic help would be cognitive behavioral therapy. Various cognitive behavioral therapy techniques have been shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of nightmares. Therapy is aimed at changing the mechanism of the nightmare scenario by influencing the cognitive model of dream formation.

The most widely used are: imagery or rehearsal therapy. The treatment approach is based on the destruction of bad thoughts, emotions and behavior. The therapeutic procedure itself is very structured.

— The patient retrieves his nightmares from memory and writes them down.

- Then, under the guidance of a psychotherapist, some elements and details of individual events are changed so as to replace all the negative elements of the dream with positive ones.

— Later, a positive experience is consolidated, which can influence the content of nightmares that arise in the future.

Preventing Nightmares

1. If you are a light sleeper, then eliminate all sounds in the bedroom that interfere with sleep. Noise “paralyzes” the dream.

2. Move large clock faces out of the bedroom, away from your line of sight. You can hang them above your head or place them on the ground next to your bed. If you look at the clock before going to bed, you get the impression that time is passing more slowly, which then creates stress and agitation.

3. Lighting in the bedroom is very important. The eyelids allow light to pass through very easily and simply closing your eyes may not be enough to maintain an adequate level of darkness for restful sleep. Good curtains or blinds should protect from light, lights from the street in the evening and at night, and from the first rays of the sun in the morning. If you like to read a book before bed, you should make sure that the light has a warm, natural color, preferably a low lamp power (but enough so as not to tire your eyes when reading text).

4. If you have trouble waking up, try exposing yourself to sunlight or bright light. This will restore biorhythms and, when dusk comes, it will be easier to fall asleep.

5. Always take care to change bed linen in a timely manner. Ventilate the room for a few minutes before going to bed.

6. Avoid extraneous strong odors in the bedroom (the smell of food, air freshener).

7. Do not bring food into the bedroom, the smell of food can make you hungry at the wrong time. Additionally, the presence of food in the bedroom can increase the likelihood of allergenic mold and mildew.

8. An hour before bedtime, you can allow yourself snacks containing carbohydrates, but do not exceed the caloric value of 100 - 200 calories (the number of calories is usually on the packaging of any food product). It is better to have a short snack in the evening, which will help prevent the desire to eat at night, hunger leads to loss of sleep.

9. During the day or 3-4 hours before bedtime you should do physical exercise lasting at least 30 minutes. Besides, physical activity Helps prevent stress, which is one of the main factors that disrupt sleep.

10. Room temperature is very important for sleep. The bedroom should be cooler than the rest of the apartment. It is better to choose a bedroom in an apartment with the least number of windows that are not located sunny side or simply equip the room with air conditioning.

11. Limit your consumption of alcoholic beverages in the evening. After 19:00 it is better not to drink alcohol at all. Alcohol, at first, will make it easy to fall asleep, but the sleep will not be deep and intermittent. The more alcohol you drink, the more time your body needs to process it. Sleep during this period will be of poor quality; the fast phase will not occur on time. As a result, the likelihood of nightmares will increase.

12. You should not drink coffee and strong tea more than two cups a day. After 15.00 you should not drink coffee at all. Caffeine remains in the body for a significant period of time, and its presence can cause sleep disruption and fragmentation.

Following basic sleep hygiene principles will help eliminate many of the causes of parosomnia, but in some cases it may not be enough to resolve all problems associated with nightmares. Good sleep hygiene is a necessary condition to ensure that any planned treatment procedures have the desired positive effect.

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Every person, be it an adult or a child, has more than once encountered the phenomenon of nightmares in dreams in their life. It’s worth mentioning right away that this condition in itself is absolutely normal and does not pose any danger if it does not recur too often. The brain processes its daytime impressions, the sensations of the body, and since there is no control of consciousness in a dream, sensations and impressions sometimes mysteriously intertwine and create strange associations and connections with the information available in the brain. Vivid unpleasant impressions, an uncomfortable, alarming or awkward situation, fear, anger, grief, create an “anchor” in the brain. The so-called focus of excitation. The brain looks for a solution to this situation, and in a state of sleep it works through and restarts the situation. Sometimes he looks for possible probable ways of developing a situation based on accumulated experience and impressions. Then the so-called " prophetic dreams".

For example, a person sees in a nightmare a child’s illness. And after some time the child actually gets sick. Thoughts about clairvoyance, providence, and so on begin. In fact, the perception of the human brain is divided into conscious and unconscious. Conscious perception is what we see, remember, discuss. But the lion's share of perception is carried out at the subconscious level. And it is at this level that a person, in in this case mother, noticed unusual behavior: lethargy or excessive mobility of the child, changes in mood, unhealthy shine in the eyes.. Similarity of the situation with the one in which the child was sick last time.. Many nuances inaccessible to conscious perception.. The brain recorded these indicators and correlated them with previous similar situations. During sleep, the subconscious was freed and the accumulated and processed information appeared in the form of a stable image. The description of situations can be continued endlessly. Of course, not all situations can be explained easily and simply. In life, as in dreams, there is a lot that is incomprehensible and unknown. But we will not let our thoughts wander and wander away from the topic that interests us. In our article we will try to reveal as much as possible the question of how to get rid of nightmares. We hope that our recommendations and advice will be useful to you.

Causes of nightmares

As we said above, the cause of nightmares can be vivid negative impressions, destructive emotions received by the brain over a certain period of time. But there are a number of other important reasons why nightmares may occur. Some of these reasons are harmless, some require behavior correction, and in some cases it is necessary to consult a specialist and even take antidepressants, sleeping pills or sedatives, since persistent long-term sleep disorders can affect the quality of life and even create a life-threatening situation. During a nightmare, the body does not rest. He's stressed. Often after such a dream a person feels overwhelmed, tired, and distracted. When working with moving machinery, driving, or crossing a busy section of the road, reaction speed is very important. In this situation, reflexive perception is slowed down, which, if a critical situation arises, can be fraught with serious consequences.

Non-critical causes of nightmares

Non-critical causes of nightmares include nightmares. caused by ordinary emotional overload, overeating before bed.
Eating before bed activates metabolic processes in the body, internal organs, involved in the digestion process, send action signals to the brain, as a result of which brain activity increases, and this process, in turn, against the background of a lack of conscious control, creates phantasmagoric visions.
Emotional overload, be it joy or ordinary stress, can significantly affect the quality of sleep. During overloads of this kind, the metabolism sharply accelerates and a large amount of adrenaline-like hormones is released. If you have chronic diseases, they can get worse. All this together, along with increased brain activity, can provoke a nightmare.
These reasons are called non-critical because nightmares and their causes, in this case, do not require specialist consultation or drug intervention, and are of an unstable, one-time nature.

Causes of nightmares that require attention

The causes of nightmares that are worth paying attention to are due to serious health problems or a difficult emotional situation, from which a person sometimes cannot get out without the help of a specialist, and sometimes long, systematic treatment.
In case of heart disease, heart failure, vascular tone is impaired. The blood supply to some organs and systems is not complete. Naturally, these organs will send signals to the brain about impending destructive changes, which, in turn, can transform into nightmares.

There is also a seemingly harmless problem. Normal snoring. Many people consider this problem a mere inconvenience and do not take it seriously. However, everything is not as cloudless as it seems at first glance. Snoring can be a symptom or cause of a serious condition called sleep apnea. Let's not delve into the medical jungle with its abstruse terminology. In a nutshell: apnea is the cessation of breathing during sleep. In some people, the brain sometimes has insufficient or incorrect control of the breathing muscles. This is most pronounced in the sleep state. Stopping breathing can last from two to three seconds to three minutes. When hypoxia (oxygen starvation) of the brain reaches a critical point, it sends a wake-up signal to the body. A person's sleep becomes superficial and restless. And as a result, nightmares will not take long to appear. But in this situation, nightmares are not the worst thing. If breathing stops for more than three minutes, brain hypoxia can become critical. And the impulse for awakening may not occur. The vast majority of deaths during sleep are associated with apnea, especially in the elderly.

The most unpleasant and painful cause of nightmares is severe emotional experiences. Death of a loved one, irreversible loss of health, family breakdown, loss of property... The list goes on and on. The reasons can be completely different and subjective for each individual person. When a severe stressful situation occurs and you remain in this situation for a long time, a stagnant focus of excitation appears in the brain. Even in sleep, in nightmares, a person replays a traumatic situation in his mind, the brain tries to find a compensatory solution and does not find it. Normal brain functionality fails. Nearby areas of the brain begin to suffer due to impaired conduction of impulses and ischemia of the vessels responsible for normal blood supply. If you do not find a way out of the situation, medicinal or psychological, the consequences can be globally serious. Stroke, madness, severe depression, suicide. A person in such a state is unable to cope with the problem on his own. Relatives need to be attentive and caring in this situation, and if a critical condition occurs, seek medical help.

How to prevent nightmares

To prevent or minimize the occurrence of nightmares, you need to take some measures. This applies primarily to conditions where the causes of nightmares are non-critical and can be influenced if certain conditions are met. Here are some of them:

• Creating a calm, relaxing environment in your bedroom.
• Quiet activities such as knitting or reading create a relaxing mood and promote normal sleep.
• Avoid consumption of coffee, alcohol, and nicotine before bedtime. These substances have a stimulating effect on the brain.
• Active physical activity in daytime Helps improve sleep quality and fall asleep quickly.
• Taking a hot bath with aromatic oils may have a relaxing effect before bed.
• Don't overload your stomach before bed.
• Listen to slow, pleasant music before bed.
• Try to accept for yourself on a subconscious level that a dream is just a dream, a type of brain activity, often unrelated to real events and situations in life. Moreover, she is unable to influence these situations.
• Form a compensatory solution. Discuss your dreams with loved ones, come up with a positive development of the situation for this dream, dream, fantasize. Try to fix this in your mind. And the next time, in a nightmare with a similar situation, the brain will take advantage of this impression.
• Create yours Personal diary- a calendar in which you will record the most vivid and memorable nightmares. Perhaps this is due to the change in the phases of the moon or with banal critical days.

Important!!!

If nightmares are regular and do not stop for more than one month, urgent consultation with a specialist is necessary to determine the cause of the nightmares and eliminate them. You may need the help of a psychologist or medication, depending on the diagnosis.

How to get rid of nightmares (video)

Conclusion:

Nightmares are a common, albeit unpleasant, part of human perception. Try not to attach much importance to this condition unless it is due to serious reasons. We hope that the information we have provided on this subject has been helpful to you. We wish you only pleasant dreams!!

Most often, children between six and ten years old have nightmares. Growing up, 80% of them remember what tormented them in childhood. But adults also suffer from unpleasant dreams: every twentieth person has terrible dreams.

Few people know that in addition to nightmares there is a medical disease "night terror", which often accompanies sleepwalking. With night terror, a person wakes up screaming about half an hour after falling asleep. Often he is in a state between sleep and wakefulness, so the next morning he may not remember anything.

Unlike night terrors, nightmares occur in the second half of sleep, in the rapid phase. If a person is woken up at this moment, he almost always remembers all the details of the dream and can describe them very clearly.

WHY DO YOU HAVE NIGHTMARES?

The question of why nightmares occur, whether they harm a person or, on the contrary, are beneficial, has been known for several centuries.

Today, science is inclined to believe that having bad dreams occasionally is even beneficial, since it is a product of our brain that allows us to deal with stress. Bad dreams can distract from worries, relieve consciousness and thereby lead to psychological relief.

In addition, sometimes nightmares can indicate a real problem in life that we most often do not notice or do not want to notice.

However, if nightmares become a constant occurrence, then there is no need to talk about their positive impact on the human body.

A study by German scientists showed that among adults, falling into emptiness is in the lead, chasing is in second place, followed by being late.

Weak mental health in children

Children often have bad dreams because they have a low sensitivity threshold. The reasons may be quarrels with parents, especially in the evening, lack of friends or bad relationship with peers. Physical punishment can also cause nightmares.

Stress/Depression

Psychologists believe that nightmares and stress are directly related to each other. When a person’s brain is under stress, the subconscious cannot switch to rest mode and continues to look for a way out of the situation even in a dream. Severe emotional shock can also cause nightmares.

Experts identify the term “post-traumatic stress disorder,” which is most often characteristic of people who were in a combat zone. But especially impressionable people experience it even after watching horror films.

Overwork

Physical or emotional fatigue can cause nightmares. The fact is that a person mentally returns to the same problem even during sleep in order to solve it. The risk group includes doctors, employees of rescue services and law enforcement agencies.

Diseases

Besides psychological problems, nightmares can indicate various physical illnesses. For example, there is a high probability of having a nightmare if you have a fever or migraine.

However, sometimes nightmares indicate serious illnesses, such as cancer. And even breathing problems and snoring can cause bad dreams.

Uncomfortable sleep

Bad dreams can occur when there are external stimuli, such as bright lights, noise, loud music or lack of air. Therefore, before you go to bed, you need to make sure that nothing will disturb you.

Even the wrong position of the bed can cause nightmares.

Binge eating

Overeating at night can also cause nightmares. The fact is that eating a heavy meal before bed leads to disruption of organ function, resulting in overexcitation and bad dreams.

Fatty and spicy foods increase body temperature, speed up metabolism and, accordingly, lead to nightmares.

Creative person

People who are creative have nightmares much more often than others. Psychologists believe that it is creative people who can sometimes see “prophetic” dreams, including nightmares, which serve as a warning.

Pathogens

These include nicotine, caffeine and alcohol. Instead of resting during sleep, the body has to work to remove foreign substances.

Various medications can also cause nightmares, especially when starting to use them.

If you are tired of nightmares, MIR 24 offers five ways to help you cope with them.

MAKE YOUR SLEEP MORE COMFORTABLE

It sounds trivial, but improving the atmosphere in the bedroom can help you cope with nightmares. It should be well-groomed, with a comfortable temperature and without too much light.

To get rid of unpleasant sounds, you can use a noise generator. It is also worth limiting the blue light that comes from computers, smartphones and tablets. It prevents the body from producing the “sleep hormone” melanin. Therefore, do not use gadgets at least two hours before bedtime.

SPORTS AND HOT BATH

You'll sleep best if you've exercised during the day. Exercising fatigue is one way to improve sleep quality. This could be aerobics, fitness, dancing, but the main thing is not to train right before bed, as then your body will be tense and will not be able to calm down to fall asleep.

Take a hot bath right before bed. A sharp drop in temperature afterwards will signal to the brain that it is time to go to bed. And don't eat before bed.

DRUG TREATMENT

If the cause of your unpleasant dreams is stress or depression, then you need to consult a doctor. Often people belonging to this risk group are prescribed the drug Prazosin.

It's also worth talking to your doctor about any medications you're already taking, as drugs that change your blood pressure can cause nightmares.

In addition, bad dreams may occur if the dosage of medications taken has been changed. In this case, they will disappear as the body adapts to the changes.

ENCOURAGING PLEASANT DREAMS

To get rid of nightmares, you need to encourage good dreams. To do this, first imagine the place where you would like to be. After this, slowly falling asleep, start thinking about pleasant events for you. You can imagine an imaginary interlocutor to whom you tell about your dreams, as well as the nightmares that torment you.

But if you still have a bad dream again, try to control the events that happen in it. Once you learn to control your dreams, you will be able to regulate what you dream about.

Ekaterina Degtereva

Everyone knows that exercise and proper nutrition are the key to excellent health and good mood. However, there is an element that is even more important to maintaining great shape. Unfortunately, it is often forgotten: young people are especially forgetful with their craving for parties and activity at any time of the day or night. It's about healthy sleep.

If a person complains of absent-mindedness, chronic fatigue, irritability, do not immediately suspect a serious illness. Most often, such symptoms indicate that the patient’s body does not have enough sleep.

Sleep is absolutely necessary for the body to restore vitality. Many people do not attach importance to the duration of sleep or do not know at all what the dangers of lack of sleep are. However, doctors view it as a pathological condition, which is distinguished by a number of obvious symptoms.

First of all, the consequences of chronic lack of sleep are reflected in appearance. The less a person slept over the past nights, the more it is imprinted on his face. From lack of sleep, bruises and bags appear under the eyes, the whites turn red, and the skin turns pale.

However, circles under the eyes are just flowers. The whole bouquet of symptoms manifests itself gradually as fatigue accumulates in the body. This is a bad mood - up to depression, chills, nausea. Feeling constantly sleepy may be accompanied by hallucinations, incoherent thinking, and loss of coordination.

If you stubbornly do not allow your body to relax, your biorhythms are seriously disturbed. Even when the patient gets to bed, it is not possible to fully rest: sleep becomes sensitive, intermittent, nightmares torment him - and in many cases, insomnia.

An organism exhausted by lack of sleep will give its careless owner whole bouquet diseases. The cardiovascular system will be under attack, diabetes, obesity, impotence and other equally serious ailments will develop. The likelihood of a stroke increases 4 times, and all kinds of oncology, in particular intestinal or breast cancer, increases 2 times. Scientists have found that people who sleep less than six hours a night increase the risk of sudden death - by 300% in men.

As doctors explain, after a day of continuous wakefulness, special chemical processes are launched in the brain that provoke mental disorders. A person is easily excited, becomes nervous and irritable. After two days of lack of sleep, neural connections in the cerebral cortex are disrupted, changes hormonal background. The load on the heart and other internal organs gradually increases, and brain cells die.

But during normal, healthy sleep, the body gets rid of negative memories, and the level of stress hormone in the blood decreases. The brain has time to process problems and experiences. But how to return to normal if signs of lack of sleep are already evident?

Chronic sleep deprivation is treated using hypnosis, psychotherapy and sedatives. But this is in severe cases. And the majority of sleep-deprived citizens will be helped by well-known folk remedies. This is honey with herbal decoctions - hawthorn, lemon balm, mint. The same decoctions also help well when dissolved in a warm bath, which is recommended to be taken before bed.

But the main thing is to learn to sleep properly! Doctors say that the most beneficial sleep is from 11 pm to 2 am. At this time, the production of melatonin, a hormone that performs several important functions, increases. It normalizes blood pressure, improves sleep, strengthens the immune system and slows down the aging process. And another hormone will wake you up early in the morning - serotonin. When their balance is disturbed, people who sleep less than expected and go to bed later than two o'clock in the morning are more likely to have sleep-related problems.

So, practice good sleep hygiene. Go to bed at the same time, before midnight. Take a walk before bed fresh air, exercise during the day will also not hurt. In the evening, do not drink drinks containing caffeine and alcohol - it is better to drink herbal infusions. Cut down on smoking. Eat no later than 2 hours before bedtime, but it is not recommended to go to bed on an empty stomach. Ventilate the bedroom well, keep the window open (the optimal temperature in the room is 18-20 degrees). You can listen to relaxing music before bed, but it's better to go to bed in silence - and in the dark.

A comfortable sleeping place also plays a significant role. It should not be too soft and not too hard; the ideal solution is an orthopedic mattress. The pillow should not be high and too soft. That seems to be all the rules. Follow them - and you will be guaranteed a healthy, restful sleep without nightmares.