A group of Swiss researchers he found a way to cure nightmares by playing positive sounds while the person sleeps. In the past, people who had frequent nightmares used something called “reversal image therapy.” A sort of method of changing the negative plot of the nightmare into something positive while awake. Can you imagine the success rate?
A new technique recently discovered improves that therapy. It does this by helping patients associate a specific sound with their rewritten dream and then play that sound through a wireless headband during the onset of the dream phase of sleep, to “chase away” recurring nightmares.
A line of research, the one that passes through the sounds, similar to what one is experimenting with to erase negative memories (I told you about it here).
Recurring nightmares, serious health impact
According to the researchers, chronic nightmares plague up to 4% of adults at any time. This condition often causes patients to wake up during the crucial phases of natural sleep, which can negatively affect not only their physical health but also their mental well-being, with possible and serious psychological consequences.
To overcome this problem, traditional therapists ask the patient to rewrite the negative scenario of the recurring nightmare and give it a positive ending. Patients are then taught to practice reliving the new scene during their waking hours, in the hope that, by the time of the dream, their unconscious mind will have adopted the new ending.
Some patients receiving this treatment see great improvements, while others experience minimal changes.
Manipulating emotions with targeted sounds: promising results
In the study published in Current Biology (I link it here), the team led by the researcher Lampros Perogamvros of the University of Geneva enrolled 36 patients who were already following traditional therapy. Half of these continued as if nothing had happened, while the other half used the new sound association technique.
Researchers engaged patients in creating a positive version of the dream plot, but they didn't stop there. They also required them to associate this new texture with a specific sound.
Subsequently, to fix this sound deeper in the patient's mind, they assigned the patients the task of reinventing the dream plot each day as they listened to the sound during this mental test. Finally, they gave each of the patients a wireless headband that played the associated sound whenever they entered REM sleep.
Result? Far fewer nightmares
As expected, both groups saw an overall decrease in the frequency of nightmares; however, the group that received sound therapy reported much fewer nightmares per week, and up to three months after treatment.
“We observed a rapid decrease in nightmares, and more emotionally positive dreams,” Perogamvros said. “For us researchers and clinicians, these results are very promising both for the study of emotional processing during sleep and for the development of new therapies.”
This is only a first step: the small sample size necessitates additional follow-up work. But the results are indeed promising, and could offer significant relief to millions of people suffering from debilitating and recurring nightmares.
Freddie Krueger, you are warned.
