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Hello to you! It's Friday

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again! You can relax now

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and get some rest. Not that you

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shouldn't be able to rest during the rest of the week, of course,

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but hopefully you get a lie in

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at some point this weekend. And

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for a lot of people, their bed is

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their favourite place. But

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not everyone, though. I

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often have clients who talk to me about being

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anxious about going to bed. Because

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they have so many nightmares.

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And the problem with nightmares can be that they

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start because your sleep routine

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was disrupted. But because of the anxiety

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about going to bed, that disrupts

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the sleep cycles even more. Which

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causes the REM, Rapid Eye Movement

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Dream Sleep, which causes

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more nightmares, which causes

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more anxiety the next day. And

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round and round it goes, until it becomes

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full on nightmare disorder,

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where it not only affects your sleep, but

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your anxiety during the day, and

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your ability to concentrate. But

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it's a treatable problem and absolutely

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can be overcome. But

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it takes a little time and a lot of patience

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because you need

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a regular sleep pattern. Now

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the nightmares are going to come anyway, so delaying

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sleep is only going to make things worse for

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you. So you have to accept

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the inevitable and go to bed

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at a healthy time and get used

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to it. And I know that's not easy, but

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that's where it starts. Then when

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the nightmare comes and wakes you up

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terrified, try my next tip,

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which is to wake up as much

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as you can. Actually

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get up, just for a couple of minutes.

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So often people with nightmare disorder, they're

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so exhausted that they don't fully

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wake up after a nightmare. They

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drift back and forth and so carry

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on with the nightmare again. But

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if you can make sure you wake up all

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the way, you're more likely to

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go back to sleep again and enter an

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REM state that uses different

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neurons. Giving you

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different dreams. That's the plan.

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And when you go back to bed, this is when I

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think the most important aspect to overcoming

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nightmares comes in. Which

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is to keep the story going.

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The brain is made up of strings of neurons,

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like paths, that the more you walk

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on the easier it gets to travel along

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the same path. It's how we learn to do things

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without thinking. That's

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how it makes things unconscious and efficient,

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but also habitual. So

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if your brain is making a habit of creating

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nightmares, then you're going to need to create

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a new path in the brain. And

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that means using different neurological

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strings, creating a different story

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with a different ending

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that becomes a different dream, but as

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with everything that we want to become unconscious

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and habitual, it starts

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with it being conscious and deliberate first,

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it takes deliberate action. So

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we do that with nothing more

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than our imagination. When

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you go back to bed, and even during the day actually,

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rewrite the nightmare. Think

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about the nightmare, daydream

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about it, but change it.

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Turn the characters in your nightmare into

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something that has no power

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over you or give yourself power over

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them. When you're awake,

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you've got better control over your imagination than

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you do when you're asleep and dreaming. So

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use it to your advantage and

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train your brain to feel in control

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and powerful over your nightmare figures.

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Make them shrink, make yourself

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grow, turn them into a Professor Snape

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wearing Neville Longbottom's grandmother's clothes, if

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you like. By entering

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into the nightmare story in your imagination,

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you'll be activating the neurons that you normally

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would when asleep and having the bad dream.

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But you're then creating a new pathway

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in the brain, new neurological

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connections. Ready for the next time

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that they get activated, when you actually are

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asleep. If you get the chance,

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of course, do see a counsellor or a

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psychotherapist as well, to maybe

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look at some of the reasons why your brain

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doesn't feel safe enough to do all of this naturally.

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One thing we know about dreams is

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that they're heavily influenced by

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what goes on in our minds. during

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the day. And talking things through

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with somebody might be necessary

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for you. And if you need a little bit of extra help,

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head on over to my Patreon page

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where there's a hypnotherapy recording to help

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with exactly this sort of issue. So

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head on over there and become a patron if

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you enjoy what I do. It'll keep these podcast

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episodes ad free, as they always

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have been since 2010 when I first

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started doing this all that time ago. I'll

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see you on there, or I'll speak to you here

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next week. Take care, folks.