Rewrite your bad dreams - Think Healthy News

Shape, Jan, 2002 by Jennifer Matlack

If you have recurring nightmares, a technique known as Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) may help you, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports. When sexual-assault victims with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were taught to control chronic nightmares by revising them while they were awake, two-thirds reported fewer nightmares within two months.

"When you modify your dreams, you take control of them," explains Barry Krakow, M.D., medical director of the Sleep and Human Health Institute (nightmaretreatment.com) in Albuquerque, N.M. "This helps you process trauma and move on." People with a psychiatric disorder such as PTSD or clinical depression should only perform IRT under the guidance of a trained therapist.