Reconditioned Nightmares.

[swestrup]

For some reason I've been having far more nightmares in the last three years than I've had in the entire previous 40 years of my life. One of the things I've been working on to help me deal with them and not let them ruin my night (and my sleep) is to try and wake up immediately when a dream turns bad. Then I think about how the dream wouldn't be a nightmare if I wasn't helpless in it, and try to get back into the same dream, but in a lucid state.

I've been trying this for some time, and last night, for the first time ever, it worked. I was dreaming that I had been kidnapped by machine-gun wielding terrorists in Tibet while exploring the four gorges dam (WTF?). I was only awake for a few seconds, but I decided that if I was some strange Tibetan god, then they would have far more to fear from me than I from them. When I fell back asleep the dream continued from where it left off, but now I was a god, and the dream very quickly ceased to be scary as I suddenly had complete power over the situation.

The dream then veered down another track entirely as I wandered off, exploring my powers, and I managed to have a full night's restful sleep.

Comments

[ellenk.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's a neat trick!

If someone asks you if you are a god, you say YES...

[helenkacan.livejournal.com]

Congrats on using the power of lucid dreaming. And getting a good night's sleep.

The other thing you can try doing is, before falling asleep, to tell your brain you'd like to dream about xxx. It's like choosing an item off a menu.

Good luck in your future dreams,
H.

[swestrup]

Dream about XXX? I always tell myself that I want a porn dream, but it seldom happens.

[helenkacan.livejournal.com]

Hee! Just for that answer you get toy pigs for the icon.

Silly, those were leeetle exxes, not beeeeg ones. But I think you got the message. [You did, didn't you?]

Shrieky, giggly hugs,
H.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Lucid dreaming! I've always wished I could do that.

[swestrup]

I've been able to do it for many years, but I've never before been successful in using it to deal with a nightmare. Always before the nightmare would get me too upset to maintain the -- for want of a better word -- concentration needed to control things while asleep.