You start to sweat, chills run through your body and your heart races as if someone is chasing you. Then you wake up with a start and think: it was just a nightmare, there is nothing to fear. However, you are still shaking, and the experience has been so unsettling that you have a hard time falling asleep. Is there a way to control nightmares as they happen?
Although there is not much research, studies suggest that some people can master their dreams and nightmares. That is, they are aware that they are having a nightmare and, possibly, can control it without waking up.
On the other hand, doctors do not consider occasional nightmares to be a problem, although there are various treatments for people whose nightmares negatively affect their lives. Also, if nightmares occur too frequently, it could be a nightmare disorder, that is, a sleep disorder that can be caused by trauma, stress, or certain medications.
However, according to Rachel Salas, associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine (USA), nightmares are extremely complicated and researchers still have a difficult time understanding them. What is known is that some people have different types of nightmares depending on the sleep cycle they are in.
Many nightmares occur in the REM phase of sleep. During this phase we are more likely to have dreams or nightmares in which we do things that we normally could not do, such as flying or walking through walls. In fact, as Professor Salas assures, the brains of people in REM phase have a similar appearance to those of people who are awake.
Control a nightmare
According to Arthuro Mota Rolim, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), the best way to stop a nightmare is to wake up. However, some evidence suggests that it is possible to remain in a nightmare by eliminating fear, as people are aware that there is no physical risk. Thus, some research participants have claimed that they have been able to transform a nightmare into a pleasant dream.
Similarly, one of the reasons there is so little research on dream control is that researchers are looking for effective ways to induce lucid dreams. For example, in 2014 a team of scientists concluded that the use of certain frequencies of electrical stimulation could increase the probability that a person will realize what they are dreaming.
However, more research is required to know exactly what happens in our brain while we rest.
