How to Stop Bad Dreams

A bad dream gives you strong negative feelings like fear, anxiety and distress. When you wake up with a bad dream, you can feel its physical effects as well such as rapid heartbeat, excessive sweating, etc. All of us have experienced it once in a while. But, there are people who get bad dreams or nightmares regularly. There are several theories and philosophies associated with dream interpretations. The most commonly observed causes are anxiety and stress. Besides, major traumatic events of life, sleep disorder, excessive consumption of alcohol, side effect of medicines, alcohol withdrawal are the other possible causes of bad dreams. In the following two sections of the article, we are talking about how to stop bad dreams in children and adults.

How to Help Kids With Bad Dreams

Bad dreams in small children are quite common who get up screaming or crying in the middle of the night. Here are a few steps that can help your child to deal with bad dreams:

Tips #1: Before bedtime, make them feel safe and secured. Children have a fear of darkness. So, put on the night lamp to assure them that they do not have to sleep in a total dark room. Keep their favorite stuffed toy on their bed. This can act as a support as they feel that they are not alone while sleeping.

Tips #2 : Make it a ritual that they say a small prayer before going to bed. This will inspire them to keep happy thoughts in their mind when they go to sleep.

Tips #3: When children wake up with a bad dream, then parents must provide them with adequate comforts. Try to calm them down with your warm hug and assure them that you are there for support. Rubbing your hand on their back is another way of showing physical assurance of your presence.

Tips #4: Make your child speak up about the dream. This will help to ease off their tension to a great extent. Listen to him or her very seriously without getting judgmental about it. In other words, never make fun of the monster story that they are trying to tell you. This may hurt their sentiment and next time onwards they are not going to share with you their thoughts.

Tips #5: Finally, when the children calm down, show them that in reality they are absolutely safe and there is nothing scary around them. Look around the nearby areas like under the bed and inside the closet that no unwanted things are hiding in any part of their room.

How to Get Rid of Bad Dreams

'How can I stop bad dreams' is quite a common query among many adults too. In fact, around fifty percent of adult people get disturbing dreams at one point of time or the other. For some unknown reason, women have more bad dreams than men.

Step #1: Fix a specific bedtime for yourself and strictly maintain that under all circumstances. That means you must go to sleep at a certain time every night. At the same time, you must get up in the morning at a scheduled time.

Step #2: Stop watching television one hour before your bedtime. A scary movie, sad news on TV can influence your thoughts and stimulate bad dreams. Rather, spend the last one hour of the day with some pleasant thoughts. Never mind even if those thoughts belong to your fantasy world and is slightly weird for real!

Step #3: If you get nightmares very often, then you must analyze them. Write down every detail about the bad dream that you can remember. Then try to figure out the cause by analyzing dreams. If you think it is triggered by stress or anxiety, then talk to your friend or relative about it. This will ease off the tension in your mind.

Step #4: Keep yourself stress free. Meditation just before you sleep is a great way of relaxing the mind. You can reverse count from 100 to zero with your focus on the breathing. Regular aerobic exercises also help you to control mental stress in a much better manner.

Step #5: Eliminate the external factors that can cause bad dreams. Avoid excessive consumption of alcohol. If you suspect that you are getting bad dreams after starting any new medicine, then talk to your doctor about its possibility. They may change the medicine.

I sincerely hope that the tips given in this article help you get rid of your nightmare problem and sleep peacefully every night.