Nightmares and How To Manage Them!
Hiya Everyone! 
Me and the lovely @ConnorSmith decided we would collaborate together and talk about nightmares.
Everyone has experienced them at some point in their life, some more than others. Were here to talk through techniques to help reduce the intensity of nightmares and manage them better. 
What is a nightmare? 
A nightmare is indeed a bad dream, with a vivid and disturbing plot that most often wakes the person from their sleep. They are usually based off of real life experiences, or portray a certain emotion a person could be experiencing in their day-to-day life.
Most nightmares occur during REM sleep, when your brain is the most active. Having a nightmare can occur repetitively, this is called a recurring nightmare.
~
The Imagery Rehearsal Technique:-
Imagery Rehearsal Technique is a good, well-known method in reducing the number and intensity of nightmares among people.
In IRT treatment, you are helped to revisualize your nightmares using a different perspective. The goal is to reprogram your nightmares to be less intense.
What Happens in Imagery Rehearsal Technique:
You can work with IRT alone or with the help of a friend. You do not need a professional to allow yourself to do this. (however, it may be beneficial for some)
~ Create detailed, non-frightening endings for nightmares.
~ Write down and rehearse with the new endings.
~ Monitor your nightmares so you know how well the IRT treatment is working.
You can start with one of your less terrifying dreams, to help build your confidence and prevent you from being triggered by the nightmares again as you wake up.
The main objective is to help you see your nightmares with minimum distress. You can think of it as a crawl before you walk approach.
@blossombreathes Personal Experience
Original:-
Im walking in an everlasting meadow, with the sky a beautiful browny orange. Im alone. I turn around and see a black silhouette of a massive tree, with a rope hanging from it. I run towards it, then the rope vanishes. The sky turns a menacing black and comes closer and closer, trapping me in.
New Version:-
Im in a meadow, during the afternoon. The sky's bright blue and Im with my friends. We are talking together and walking around. Theres a massive tree which we climb together. When we get to the top, we look out at a beautiful waterfall in the distance.
~ If you would like to collaborate with either of us, please do not hesitate to PM us! We really enjoyed working together. ~
Have you personally experienced several nightmares or recurring ones? You are not alone! Have you tried this method before? Did it work for you? Or, are you going to give it a go? Do you have any questions youd like us to answer?
Let us know!
Thank you for reading! We hope you are having a lovely day.
Tagging:-
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*this taglist will NOT be used again*
Helpful Resources:-
Calm - Meditation Techniques for Sleep and Stress Reduction
More Information on Nightmares
7Cups Sleeping Well Self-Help Guide
I've had recurring nightmares about my dad and my brother dying in a fire, but they ended themselves. This is useful information, because I have weird dreams every single night. Thank you!
Thank you for reading and sharing, wishing you all the best! This is a funny one for me, mainly because, 90% of the time I don't really dream. That said I have started to dream a little more since I got over my depression - which is kinda normal I guess but weird. Anyway. I have had recurring nightmares. Two in fact - though not at the same time. And both of them sort of "resolved themselves" and never came back. In both cases a dream started off in the classic way, like the nightmare, and then, for some reason, I am able to overcome the problem in it and just like that, they never reccurred again! I think it was more to do with the fact that I had somehow solved the problem they were pertaining to in real life though because I wasn't making a conscious effort to overcome the nightmares at the time, I never knew there WAS an actual solution! Will definitely try these tactics if it happens again!
@EJGatsby
Hiya! Even though you may not be able to remember your dream, we dream most nights! It's really weird, I know. It's really interesting to know that you've had experiences with recurring nightmares however they have solved themselves with time. It seems like once you solved a certain problem in your life, the dreams weren't as frequent. I'm glad you like the tips, I hope they come in useful for you sometime! ^-^ *huggles* Thank you for reading.
this is really interesting! thank you for sharing
i've always struggled with nightmares and weird, upsetting dreams and my boyfriend gets them really bad as well. i'm going to mention this to him :) hopefully it'll help
@blossombreathe thank you for this helpful post! I am interested in dreams and it was a pleasure to find out more about nightmares. I bet now I would be able to control my nightmares better :P
P.S. @kestis, check it out!
I have very vivid dreams and plenty of nightmares. Only one is recurrent but, if I'm lucky, I only get it about once every few months (probably because of my insomnia, I don't get enough sleep to dream all that much!). I'd really like to do something about my nightmares but as they're so random it's hard to know what to do.
@LittleLotte
Insomnia and recurring dreams are hard to tackle! However, I'm sure that over time things will get better regarding sleep for you, lovely. *huggles* :3 Wishing you the best!
@blossombreathe I've kind-of learnt to accept that I'll never get any proper sleep without medication. I've been this way since I was a child and have tried everything to solve it, I guess it'll always just be this way.