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Every person had a nightmare or two during the life. What about the poor souls that experience them too often?
There may be some therapies and psychological techniques created to help you. You could also try to use medicines or even mind-altering drugs. Of course none of these are guaranteed to work, some may have nasty side effects.
The best method, of course in my opinion, that should be used to deal with nightmares is taking direct control of your dream. Gaining consciousness during your sleep will make you realize that everything around isn't real. Your fears will be gone. The worst that can happen is you waking up. Believe me, you will not want to once you find yourself inside a realm that you can control.
Conscious dreams are called lucid dreams. There are a lot of tips and basic techniques that can help you achieve them. One of the crucial things is creating a dream journal and writing every single experience from the night in it. That will increase your dream recall, which is important for lucidity. You might also notice some kind of signs or repetitive actions in your nightmares. Analyzing and focusing on them before going to bed should give you a fair chance of recognizing them in your sleep. If you do, you gain consciousness, control and you are no longer afraid.
I bet it sounds like a wonderful solution. It is! Plus, it's not hard to grasp if you have persistence and motivation to train yourself in the art of lucid dreaming.
There are a lot of other things you can do to increase the chances of having a peaceful night. In addition to keeping a dream journal, you can perform reality checks. In a nutshell – you check if everything around you is real. Do it often, let it become your habit. That way it may slip into your dreamworld where it will fail, granting you consciousness.
One of the best reality checks (at least the one that was exceptionally good for me) is trying to breathe trough plugged nose. Clasp your nose between your fingers, mouth closed, then try to take a breath. If you can do it – you are asleep! It never failed me.
Last important tip – when doing a reality check you have to focus and question the world around you, regardless of what you might be thinking. Dreamers are always sure that no matter what is happening it is real. Don't fall for that.
