Want to Avoid Bad Dreams? 9 Things to Watch Out
What if you can control what you dream? What if you can avoid getting nightmares and get more of pleasant and motivating dreams? Looks like, you can. By learning the major factors that influence sleep, you can do something to lower your chances of having a bad dream, and experience a deep, restful and rejuvenating slumber.
When our body is at sleep, it does everything to stay asleep. So rather than waking us up, various stimuli, such as sound, smell, light and sensations often become woven into our dreams. Maybe you have experienced getting drowned and suffocated in a dream, and when you woke up, there’s a pillow or blanket on your face. Or maybe you have dreamed of dancing in the tune of a familiar song and when you woke up, it’s the same track playing on your music player.
Here is a list of the things that usually influence our sleep and dreams:
Smells
One small study by the University Hospital Mannheim in Germany found that sniffing sweet smells like that of flowers during sleep can promote positive dreams whilst bad odour, like that of sulphur, promote negative dreams. According to Boris Stuck, the lead author of the study, if odour has a strong effect on our emotions when we are awake, it makes sense that it also has a strong effect on our emotions during sleep. So if you want to increase your chances of having good dreams, try dabbing a drop of lavender oil on your pillow before nodding off.
Sounds
You dreamt of being stuck in a burning building and you can hear the fire alarm getting louder and louder as you find your way out. Then all of a sudden, you woke up (thank God), and realised that the alarm you heard was actually from your alarm clock. If you want to increase the chances of having positive dreams tonight, consider playing your favourite album quietly whilst you sleep, or using a white noise machine that produces mild sounds like ocean waves, rushing waterfall or wind blowing through trees, that cover unwanted and distracting noises.
Sleeping Positions
Whether you sleep on your back, side, or belly – your sleeping position can affect what you dream about, according to Dr Calvin Kai-Ching Yu of Hong Kong Shue Yan University. He found that sleeping was strongly associated with all kinds of charged dream, such as being locked up, having sex, having a love affair with a celebrity, being naked, being smothered, etc. In 2004, a small study published in the Sleep and Hypnosis found that left-side sleepers had more nightmares than right-sleepers. Proponents of traditional Chinese medicine have a theory regarding this. According to them, the right side of the body is associated with masculine, grounding, and physical energy, whilst the left side is seen as having intuitive, emotional, and feminine energy. Being injured in one side causes an imbalance in the flow of energy, so sleeping on the left side would more likely promote upsetting dreams.
State of Mind
If your dreams often affect your mood the next day, your thoughts and emotions also impact what you dream about. Research by sleep analyst Lauri Loewenberg suggests that depression can influence one’s dream’s colour palates. She found that dreams in black and white or where colours are muted or in shades of grey, can be a symbol of depression. Loewenberg adds that the weather in our dreams is very much connected to our emotions in real life. Practising stress management techniques can be a great bedtime ritual to reduce your likelihood of having bad dreams.
Drugs and Vitamins
Some pharmaceutical drugs may also be affecting your sleep and dream patterns. Nearly all commonly prescribed drugs for mental and emotional disorders affect dreams, particularly during the REM stage of sleep. Many people using nicotine patch report having vivid dreams, as well as those taking drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and depression. Whilst there is not enough research on it, vitamin B6 has also been shown to help people remember their dreams more vividly. So if you’re looking to get more pleasant dreams whilst taking this vitamin, limit yourself to the recommended amount daily.
Certain Foods
Yes, even the food you eat could be making you less or more vulnerable to bad dreams. Spicy foods, dairy products, and heavy meals – anything that can cause indigestion – makes you more prone to having nightmares and recalling them. That’s why sleep experts recommend eating dinner at least two hours before bedtime and choosing light and healthy evening snacks.
Quitting
Do you dream of your favourite snacks (pizza, ice cream, cake, doughnut, etc) when you’re trying to lose weight? How about smoking when you’re quitting? When you’re trying to quit something, you are likely to dream about them, according to Loewenberg. But don’t worry, eventually, your neurons will calm down and forget about those unhealthy habits.
Sleeping with an Empty Stomach
If you skip dinner, you are more likely to dream about eating lots and lots of food. Many anorexia sufferers often dream about food. If you are trying to lose weight and don’t want to be bothered by such kind of dreams, have a low-calorie evening snack like an apple and tea.
Spooky Movies
Your mum was right – watching scary movies before bedtime can increase your chances of having nightmares. Basically, what you do before going to sleep matters (a lot). So if you suffer from nightmares and happen to watch a horror film, re-programme your mind first by instilling happy thoughts before you sleep. Maybe you can watch a short funny video clip or read a feel-good novel.
Hope this article has given you some ideas on how to get a good night sleep and fewer nightmares. Feel free to post a comment below.
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