How to Deal With Adult Nightmares

Nightmares are not solely a problem for young children. In fact, many adults suffer from recurring nightmares, too. Many causes can trigger terrifying and persistent nightmares in adults, including stress and memories of past trauma and abuse. Bad dreams often take a toll on a person's mental health, causing everything from excessive sweating to nervousness and isolation.

Instructions

• 1

  Follow a regular sleeping schedule. If nightmares are plaguing you, try to prevent them by engaging in healthy sleep hygiene. Keeping erratic and unpredictable hours often triggers nightmares, so make an effort to wake up and go to sleep at the same time every day.

• 2

  Face your nightmares. Instead of running away from your dreams, approach them head-on. Right after you wake up from a frightening dream, jot down what you can recall from it. Leave a pen and paper by your bedside to make this process easier. Then, write your nightmare over again, this time eliminating the scariest aspects. Before going to bed again, clearly envision the less threatening version of your dream.

• 3

  Maintain a peaceful sleeping environment. Encourage relaxing and uninterrupted sleep by making your bedroom a sanctuary. Disassociate your bed from other activities that are unrelated to sleeping, including television viewing, listening to the radio and talking on the telephone. Ensure that the temperature of the room is neither excessively cold nor hot. The easier it is for you to fall and stay asleep, the less likely it is that you will experience nightmares.

• 4

  Focus on reality. When you wake up in the middle of the night after having experienced a terrifying nightmare, calm yourself down through reminding yourself that what you just dreamed has nothing to do with the present. Remind yourself that you are safe and that what happened was merely a dream. To "prove" to yourself that the nightmare wasn't real, observe your reflection in a mirror. Say something aloud to yourself.

• 5

  Speak to another person. Deal with your nightmares through talking about them with another person who makes you feel comfortable and relax. Sharing your feelings with someone else may ease the burden off of you.

• 6

  Concentrate on another activity. To get your mind off of a nightmare, partake temporarily in something else instead of lying awake in your bed. Read a magazine. Watch a movie on DVD. Play with your dog. Drink a glass of water. Surf the Internet.

• 7

  Seek professional assistance. If your nightmares are recurring and you think they might be triggered by a painful past experience, consider the possibility that you have a condition such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Make an appointment to speak with a therapist that specializes in this condition. If you want to work through your issues in a group setting, look for post-traumatic stress disorder support groups near you.