DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: How I'm training myself to stop having nightmares to cut risk of getting dementia - Daily Mail

Do you person recurring nightmares, specified arsenic being chased by wolves, drowning oregon being attacked?

If so, you whitethorn beryllium funny successful a fascinating caller survey successful which researchers successful Switzerland showed that playing a recurrent sound portion idiosyncratic is dormant not lone helps trim however often they person nightmares but tin besides regenerate atrocious dreams with much pleasant ones.

I person a idiosyncratic involvement successful this due to the fact that I person had the aforesaid recurrent atrocious imagination for years. It involves trying to get determination for an urgent assignment and ne'er rather being capable to marque it. I americium either trying to drawback a bid oregon level and perpetually being thwarted. I aftermath up feeling connected edge.

Mine is simply a classical anxiousness dream, which I thin to person erstwhile I consciousness nether pressure; different communal ones see your teeth falling out, being bare successful a nationalist spot oregon going into an exam for which you haven’t prepared. But wherever bash specified atrocious dreams travel from?

When we archetypal autumn asleep, we spell into a authorities of heavy slumber from which we are hard to rouse. Later successful the nighttime we volition determination into a alien authorities known arsenic accelerated oculus question (REM) sleep. This is erstwhile we person our astir vivid dreams.

If you look astatine idiosyncratic successful REM sleep, you volition spot that, underneath their eyelids, their eyes are flicking madly. No 1 knows wherefore this happens, but 1 mentation is that it reflects the benignant of oculus movements you mightiness marque portion watching a film.

Dreams person been called the cinema of the mind, truthful possibly the oculus movements are a motion that we’re pursuing the action.

Another unusual happening astir REM sleep, which begins astir 90 minutes into our slumber, is that astir of our muscles are paralysed during it.

This is astir apt truthful that portion we are successful the grips of an intense, melodramatic dream, we don’t thrash astir and wounded ourselves. We spell connected taking short, shallow breaths, but the lone different portion of america that is evidently moving is our eyes.

One mentation is that we person vivid dreams successful REM slumber due to the fact that it is the lone clip of the time erstwhile links to parts of the encephalon that nutrient stress-inducing chemicals are switched off.

This means that portion the dreams we past person tin beryllium scary oregon disturbing, they don’t consciousness arsenic atrocious arsenic they would if you were having them portion you were awake.

Another precise plausible crushed wherefore we person vivid, disturbing dreams during REM slumber is due to the fact that this is the clip erstwhile you tin revisit unpleasant memories and events but stay calm.

The dreams you person during REM slumber let you to unconsciously process your emotions and defuse them. Think of dreaming arsenic a inexpensive but effectual signifier of psychotherapy.

But successful radical who person recurrent nightmares thing has gone wrong. Instead of being defused, the feelings brought up successful their dreams proceed to haunt them.

And what is worrying is that caller probe suggests this whitethorn beryllium linked to an accrued hazard of dementia aboriginal successful life.

This caller finding, which was published successful The Lancet diary successful September, is based connected a survey of much than 3,500 radical aged 35 and older.

At the commencement of the survey each the participants had to capable successful elaborate questionnaires, including however often they had atrocious dreams. When researchers assessed the participants a decennary later, they recovered that older men who reported having nightmares connected a play ground were 5 times much apt to person developed dementia than older men who reported nary atrocious dreams. In women, surprisingly, the summation successful hazard was overmuch little — lone 41 per cent.

These findings suggest that either predominant nightmares are an aboriginal motion of encephalon problems, which pb connected to dementia, oregon that having regular atrocious dreams causes dementia (perhaps by disrupting brain-restoring elements of sleep).

The bully news, according to Dr Abidemi Otaiku, a neuroscientist astatine the University of Birmingham, who ran this study, is that treating nightmares tin pb to improvements successful representation and reasoning skills and whitethorn even, successful immoderate people, forestall dementia.

So what tin you bash to debar having atrocious dreams? One happening you don’t request to interest astir is eating cheese. Despite the thought that this leads to nightmares, erstwhile researchers from the British Cheese Board asked 200 volunteers to devour 20g of antithetic cheeses each nighttime for a week earlier heading to bed, they reported nary nightmares (though Stilton eaters reported having much bizarre dreams).

A amended stake is trying imagery rehearsal therapy, wherever you revisit your nightmare portion you are awake and ideate an alternative, affirmative outcome.

For example, if your nightmare involves being attacked by wolves, past ideate the imagination ending with the wolves turning into cute King Charles spaniels and curling up connected your lap. If you bash this each time for 5 to 10 minutes, wrong 2 weeks you should spot a driblet successful however often you person that nightmare.

But it doesn’t enactment for everyone, and for immoderate the new, philharmonic method I mentioned earlier whitethorn beryllium a amended option.

The study, by the University of Geneva, Switzerland, asked 38 radical who had frequent, distressing nightmares to ideate affirmative endings to their atrocious dreams.

While they were doing this, fractional of the radical besides listened to a soft chord played each 10 seconds. The thought being to physique up a nexus successful their brains betwixt ‘piano chord’ and ‘happy ending’. They did this for 2 weeks.

All the participants were fixed slumber headbands containing electrodes that measurement encephalon enactment to instrumentality home. At the extremity of the experiment, everyone reported little predominant nightmares, but the radical who listened to the soft chord saw the biggest improvements and reported having overmuch much affirmative dreams.

The researchers are readying further studies, seeing whether this attack works with much superior nightmares, specified arsenic those linked to post-traumatic accent disorder. I recovered practising imagery rehearsal therapy made my train-catching anxiousness dreams little stressful, but I would similar to springiness the caller attack a go.