GrannyPigms

Hey, You can find peace in life away from those nightmares.

Nightmares can be tough. Especially those which are incredibly personal. Random monster trying to eat us dreams are easy to deal with. But we all know they can be more complex than that.

I have personally found that staying asleep through the nightmares helps. Whenever I wake up from one, my whole day is rooted in that dream. When I stay asleep through one, they usually resolve and I've found peace with it before I wake. It also helps for gaining lucidity in said nightmares. I can then sometimes travel back in time to a pivotal pre-nightmare point in the dream and prevent the whole mess from happening. That helps me a lot.

You might also try doing things to decrease cortisol, and norepinephrine, as well as increasing serotonin, dopamine, and testosterone levels. This can be done by "giving yourself a treat for surviving the day". Also, do a two minute power pose (something expansive, take up a ton of space, puff up, look proud). These will get all those feel-good and feel-powerful hormones boosted. Then take the time to relax once you get into bed. When you wake up, give yourself a reward for having good dreams, don't give yourself that reward if you have bad dreams. It might even help to say out loud "no cookie for you because you gave me a nightmare." Our minds are a lot like puppies, they actually do respond to cookies. Sounds dumb, but boy does it work.

It takes time, but we can indeed stop having nightmares. I now only have the nightmares I allow to happen.

Thanks for the help guys! I'll try this tonight.

Better get to making some cookies...