4% of adults experience chronic nightmares at some point in their lives. Although these vary from person to person, bad dreams often have images and thoughts of aggression, interpersonal conflict, failure, and other emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness. However, if they become too frequent and cause ongoing emotional distress, there are therapies to combat this disorder.

There is no perfect solution, but treatments are getting better and better. In fact, scientists have developed a technique for manipulating your emotions using sound while you sleep.

Treatments. People with recurring nightmares often experience these strong negative emotions during REM sleep. And typically the problem is treated with image rehearsal therapy (IRT), a non-invasive method in which patients rewrite their most disturbing and frequent nightmares to give them a happy ending. Then, trying to overwrite the nightmare, they “rehearse” to tell themselves the rewritten story. This method can reduce the frequency and is not effective for all patients.

In 2010, scientists took another step in their research and discovered that playing sounds that people are trained to associate with a particular stimulus while they sleep helps improve memory of that moment. This is called redirected memory reactivation (TMR).

Study. This research, carried out by the Geneva University Hospitals Laboratory under the supervision of psychiatrist Lampros Perogamvros, sought to find out whether re-enabling this memory could improve the effectiveness of the imaging rehearsal therapy studied earlier. To do this, the scientists invited 36 volunteers with the disorder to rewrite their most frequent nightmares in a more positive light, and then play the sounds associated with positive experiences while they sleep.

Patients were analyzed for weeks during which the frequency of nightmares was measured. The experimental group was exposed to the same sound (C69 piano chord) during REM sleep. At the end of the experiment, they found that compared to the control group (silent), patients treated with TMR had fewer nightmares and more positive dreams.

What does that mean? This feeling in the dream experience is important. As the researchers explain, what happens during REM sleep has been shown to be vital for reinforcing positive memories, albeit implicitly. Also, this promising therapy could be used as a form of “sleep therapy” for other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mood disorders, and insomnia.

What causes them? Many people suffer from nightmares and do not have to suffer from a chronic condition. Nightmares are also associated with poor quality sleep, which in turn is linked to a host of other health problems. Lack of sleep can also increase anxiety, which can lead to insomnia and nightmares.

Recent research has shown that nightmares and sleep disturbances are on the rise during the global Covid pandemic. In addition, scientists associate nightmares with other factors such as trauma, pathologies (such as sleep apnea), medications (antidepressants, antihypertensives, beta blockers) or alcohol and drugs.

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