Create a Happy Ending to Nightmares

​Compared to the everyday life dreams include a considerable number of threating situations. About two thirds of all dreams include some type of threating situation and many times the menace is life-threatening.  Situations like chases, falling and being trapped are familiar from dreams but they are not usually a part of our daily routine.

- If a person has suffered from a traumatic experience or if she or he lives in a dangerous environment, the number of threatening situations in dreams increases, says Valli.

We Inherit the Nightmares

Valli is researching Threat Simulation Theory, which might explain why our dreams feature threatening situations. According to the theory, dreams have a genetically hereditary function which is linked to reproduction and survival. Dreams are a safe place to practice encountering threatening situations.  Practice makes perfect and the mechanisms in brain start to recognize threatening situations faster.

- If the theory is correct, nightmares and threatening dreams are relics like the tailbone and the appendix. When people’s living environment changes, the dream threat simulator no longer fulfills its original purpose but still continues to produce threat dreams.  However, it is possible that dreams have no specific function and they are only the byproduct of sleep, Valli ponders.

Occasional unpleasant feelings and experiences connected with dreams are perfectly normal but sometimes they can be an indication of a more serious sleeping disorder that needs medical attention.

Patients May Act Out Their Dreams

Valli studies a quite rare rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD). The disorder is named after REM sleep. REM sleep is a phase of sleep in which the most vivid dreaming takes place. RBD in itself is rather uncommon but it is more prevalent among patients suffering from neurological disorders, like Parkinson’s disease. With these patients, the mechanisms of the brainstem, which normally block movement signals from the brain to the muscles during REM sleep, have stopped working. These patients experience a variety of muscle movements during sleep:  from small jerks to coordinated moving.

- It is believed that, in a way, RBD patients act out their dreams so that their mind experiences the events of the dream world and the body moves in the physical reality. This makes them very prone to accidents and waking up in the middle of moving is also very distressing, Valli says.

There is a functional treatment available for RDB: benzodiazepine clonazepam, which calms and relaxes muscles.

Connect to Happy Visualizations

Another sleeping disorder connected to REM sleep is chronic nightmares. Constant and disturbing nightmares can be eased with therapy.  Visualization therapy is a form of cognitive therapy, in which the nightmare is rewritten with a happy ending. The idea is that while it’s not possible to erase the unpleasant memory trace, it’s possible to create and activate a competing memory trace.

- Visualization therapy is something everybody can try themselves at home. First, you write down the nightmare and after that you modify the story to a more pleasant one. The key point is to connect with the new ending and go through it several times.  This technique helps especially with repetitive nightmares but also decreases all nightmares in general, Valli explains.

- As a general rule, talking about nightmares also helps to reduce the anxiety that they may bring, Valli continues.

Dreams Are Keys to Self-knowledge

Dreams can also be very rewarding. At the time, the events of the dream are real to the dreamer and no game or other content offered by media can produce such an authentic experience. Dreams can also act as keys to self-knowledge.

- The evolutionary function and meaning of dreams are two different matters. Whatever the fundamental function of dreams is, they have different personal meanings to everyone. It is up to you how important your dreams are and what you take from them, Valli reminds.

So what has been a wonderful and memorable dream to the dream researcher?

- Usually people experience dreams as themselves but sometimes you can act in different roles. These types of distortions of the dream-me are uncommon and maybe that is why I remember a dream where I was a wolf and hunted, Valli smiles.

P.h.D Katja Valli studies Threat Simulation Theory, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder and neutral correlatives of dreaming with the funding of Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) in the Subject of Psychology of the University of Turku.

Text: Henna Borisoff

Photos: Sami Paakkarinen and pseudonym Stéfan (edited together)