Nightmares (LLSN! Nov 2012)

-A dream that causes a strong negative emotional response like fear, anxiety or sadness.

"The word derives from the Old English "mare", a mythological demon who torments human beings with frightening dreams." -wikipedia

Possible Causes:
- Eating before bed, which increases metabolism and brain activity
- Medication- from anti-depressants to blood pressure medication
- Sleep deprivation can also contribute to nightmares, which themselves take away your sleep, so this can become a cycle that's hard to break.
- Trauma
(source- webmd)

Steps to deal with nightmares:
- Keep a regular wake-sleep routine
- Stay away form alcohol, caffeine and nicotine
- Try to identify possible underlying causes
- Practice story-line alteration (one method is IRT)

"As described by Krakow and Harris, IRT is a three-step process:
Jot down a brief description of a recent nightmare. If your most recent nightmare is too upsetting to think about, pick another.
Think of a way to change the nightmare. Krakow declines to tell his patients what sort of change to make, encouraging them to rely on their intuition to make an appropriate change." - webmd