CHANGE DREAMS TO BEAT NIGHTMARES

If you have a bad dream, try changing the ending. Perhaps you remember doing this as a child. Now it has been proven as a treatment for nightmares, according to a report in the Washington Post.

Researchers worked with patients suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and all the associated ills - depression, flashbacks and nightmares, loss of motivation, avoidance of places and people associated with the trauma, increased irritability etc. They were divided into two groups, and one received dream therapy along with the standard drug and talk therapy.

The dream therapy had the patients write down their nightmares, then write a revised description of the dream, changing it so the outcome was the way they wished it to be. They then rehearsed their revised dream descriptions for 20 minutes a day, and met in small groups to discuss them. After three and six months, 65 percent of the dream therapy group reported significantly fewer and less severe nightmares and other symptoms. In the nondream therapy group 69 percent reported no change, or a worsening of symptoms.