How to Recover From a Nightmare
If you’ve ever woken up during a particularly dire nightmare , you know how frustrating it can be. It would be one thing if the experience ended there, but for many people, myself included, the feelings of fear, anxiety, and / or depression caused by poor sleep can be difficult to shake. This is a terrible way to start the day, especially if you struggle with anxiety on a regular basis.
Fortunately, there are ways to recover from your nightmare so that you can start your day fresh. Lifehacker spoke with two psychiatrists to find out how to do this.
Why We May Feel Overwhelmed or Anxious After a Nightmare
Before we look at how to recover and start your day from poor sleep, let’s take a look at why nightmares can do it to us in the first place. According to Dionne Metzger , MD, a psychiatrist based in Atlanta, disturbed sleep is a reality. “Just like how we would feel after a terrible experience in real life, we can have the same reaction of anxiety, sadness, or even anger after a bad dream,” she tells Lifehacker.
And this is one of the reasons why our brains are wired to quickly forget our dreams, says psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu, MD . “Otherwise, we would not be able to distinguish between our waking and dreaming life,” says Dimitriu, board certified psychiatry and sleep medicine and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine. He says dreams are “kind of the best virtual reality simulator,” which makes the nightmares especially intimidating.
In fact, it is this “reality” of dreams that causes us to continue to experience the feelings of the dream — whether joy, sadness, fear, or anxiety — upon awakening. “There is a theory that we process emotions and feelings in sleep, and in some cases, if the emotions are too strong, we wake up and can never ‘process’ those thoughts,” explains Dimitriou. “This is believed to be the case with PTSD and why people with PTSD continue to suffer and wake up with disturbing nightmares at night and flashbacks during the day.”
What can we do to recover from the nightmare
Metzger explains that the first step in coping with the aftermath of a nightmare is to acknowledge the anxiety and other negative feelings that bad dreams can cause. She says anxiety is a natural response and there is nothing to be understated or ashamed of. “I have had patients who admitted that they were embarrassed because they were so upset about their sleep,” says Metzger. “It doesn’t matter if the reason is a dream or a real experience; our brain reacts in a similar way. “
Then try to process the content of the dream – something, according to Dmitry, is consistent with the treatment of PTSD, especially if it is a recurring topic or dream . “The goal in the morning is not to bury feelings, but to confront them – keep a diary, discuss and give them time to think,” he explains. “My approach to therapy is the scarecrow model, which basically says that as long as you fear the dark and keep running, you remain afraid of the dark and keep running. The goal of most therapies, and of course nightmares, is to confront fear. Sometimes we need help with this, and this is where therapy becomes a tool. ”
The idea here is to actively process sleep by working on your thoughts and feelings about it. Just get up and start your day instead of lying in bed and stewing.