Tag: sleep

Why we have nightmares and how to stop them | CNN

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CNN
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We leave behind our fears of monsters under the bed as we say goodbye to our childhoods, but one can follow us into adulthood and loom over our heads.

Nightmares are more common in childhood, but anywhere from 50% to 85% of adults report having occasional nightmares.

Almost everyone can experience nightmares.

“Dreams do usually incorporate things that happened during the day, leading some researchers to hypothesize that dreams and rapid eye movement sleep is essential for memory consolidation and cognitive rejuvenation,” said Joshua Tal, a sleep and health psychologist based in Manhattan.

“Nightmares are the mind’s attempts at making sense of these events, by replaying them in images during sleep.”

Nightmares are what the American Academy of Sleep Medicine call “vivid, realistic and disturbing dreams typically involving threats to survival or security, which often evoke emotions of anxiety, fear or terror.”

If someone has frequent nightmares — more than once or twice weekly — that cause distress or impairment at work or among people, he or she might have nightmare disorder. Treatments include medications and behavioral therapies.

Addressing frequent nightmares is important since they have also been linked to insomnia, depression and suicidal behavior. Since nightmares can also cause sleep deprivation, they are linked to heart disease and obesity as well.

Trying out these 10 steps could help you ease your nightmares and improve your sleep and quality of life.

Nightmares occur during rapid eye movement sleep, the phase during which our muscles relax and we dream. Waking up during REM sleep enables recollection of the dream and resulting distress, said Jennifer Martin, a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s board of directors.

“One of the most effective ways to treat nightmare problems in adults is actually to get them sleeping more soundly (so) they wake up less often,” Martin said.

A healthy sleep routine begets sound sleep. Develop one by exercising, setting regular sleep and waking times, ensuring your room is dark and cool, avoiding stimulating beverages after midafternoon and engaging in relaxing activities.

Alcoholic beverages can induce restlessness and awakenings throughout the night — potentially helping you remember nightmares, Martin said.

“A lot of people use alcohol as a way to wind down and feel sleepy at the end of the day, but it’s really not the right solution,” she added. Instead, try herbal teas and other beverages conducive to sleep. If drinking was the only part of your relaxation routine, chat with your partner or read instead.

One drink more than three hours before bedtime is OK, Martin said. Just pay attention to whether it causes a post-dinner nap and alertness at bedtime, and eliminate that drink if it does.

Avoid snacking before bed to prevent spiking your metabolism and activating your brain.

Snacking can boost metabolism, which causes your brain to be more active and could lead to nightmares, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

While some people sleep better after eating a light snack, you should stop eating two to three hours before bedtime. If you notice that you have nightmares afterward, try avoiding nighttime snacking or heavier meals before bed.

Some medications can prompt nightmares by interrupting REM sleep.

“If people can identify that their nightmares either started or increased when they had a change in their medication, that’s definitely a reason to talk to their doctor” about their medication schedule or alternatives, Martin said.

Melatonin, while a popular sleep aid, influences our circadian rhythm that regulates REM sleep, and can lead to more or fewer nightmares. If you want to take melatonin for better sleep, work with a sleep specialist to ensure you’re taking it at the right time and not compounding the problem, Martin said.

Calming activities can deactivate your fight-or-flight response and trigger your relaxation system.

Progressive muscle relaxation — tensing muscle groups as you inhale and relaxing them as you exhale — has been effective for reducing nightmares.

“Nightmares activate the sympathetic nervous system, the ‘fight or flight system,’ the body’s natural response to imminent danger,” said Tal via email.

“The body also has an innate relaxation system: the parasympathetic nervous system, aka the ‘rest and digest’ system.” Progressive muscle relaxation and other relaxation activities can help activate that system.

Journaling can help you release your anxieties.

Write down your worries to get them all out ahead of time, lest they rear their disquieting heads at night. Journaling can be helpful for alleviating nightmares and stress in general, Tal said.

Images from any exciting or disturbing content you watched before bed can appear in your dreams.

Since our nighttime observations can appear during sleep, “spend some energy engaging with things that are more emotionally neutral or even positive” before bedtime, Martin suggested.

During the pandemic, our everyday lives are looking pretty scary, too. “Reading the news media and then hopping into bed is more likely to trigger disturbing and upsetting dreams than looking through pictures from your last vacation with your family,” she added.

Imagery rehearsal therapy is effective “when the chronic nightmares are showing similar themes and patterns,” Tal said.

Since nightmares can be learned behavior for the brain, this practice involves writing down in detail the narrative elements of the dream. Then rewrite the dream so that it ends positively. Just before falling asleep, set the intention to re-dream by saying aloud, “If or when I have the beginnings of the same bad dream, I will be able to instead have this much better dream with a positive outcome.”

“By practicing a rewrite during the daytime, you increase your chances of having them at night while you’re sleeping instead of your nightmare,” Tal said.

Silence is key in a sleep routine, but “for people who either don’t like it to be completely quiet or who are awakened by noises they can’t control during the night,” background noise “is a good strategy,” Martin said.

Try a fan or a white noise machine or app for several consecutive nights to help your brain adapt, she added.

If nothing works and you’re still having nightmares, talk with a therapist or sleep specialist.

“Nightmares might be a sign of a larger issue, such as PTSD or a mood disorder,” Tal said. “It is possible to treat the nightmares without treating the underlying disorder, but it may also be helpful to treat both the symptom and the disorder.

“There has been great progress on psychological treatments for nightmares, insomnia, anxiety and mood disorders,” Tal added. “Do not be afraid to ask for help; psychotherapy works and it is often short term and accessible.”

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Why you keep having the same dream | CNN

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CNN
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For years, dreams of my teeth cracking, loosening or falling out plagued my sleep. Loved ones of mine have repeatedly dreamed of flying, rolling away in a self-operating car, or running late for school or work. These aren’t typical nightmares, which usually happen once. They’re some of the most common recurring dreams, which tend to lean negative and can take some work to overcome.

“Recurring dreams are likelier to be about very profound life experiences or just very character logic issues that are kind of guaranteed to recur in waking life because they’re part of you rather than a one-time event,” said dream researcher Deirdre Barrett, a lecturer of psychology in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Since our dreams typically don’t repeat themselves, all it takes is dreaming the same dream twice or more for it to be considered recurring, Barrett said. They’re more common in childhood, Barrett said, but can last into adulthood. And recurring dreams don’t always happen in close proximity to each other — they can pop up multiple times per month or years apart, Barrett said.

Recurring dreams might be the same every time, or they might just recycle the same types of scenarios or worries, experts said.

“It is difficult to assess the prevalence of recurrent dreams because it is not something that happens on a regular basis for most people,” said clinical psychologist Dr. Nirit Soffer-Dudek, a senior lecturer in the department of psychology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, via email. “And when people are asked about past dreams in their life, they may be influenced by memory distortions, interest in dreams (or lack thereof), or other factors.”

Regardless, anything that comes up repeatedly is worth investigating, said sleep medicine specialist Dr. Alex Dimitriu, founder of Silicon Psych, a psychiatry and sleep medicine practice in Menlo Park, California.

“People have this kind of touch-and-go approach with things that are uncomfortable or fear-inducing, and I think dreams are, in some way, the same way,” Dimitriu said. “As a psychiatrist, I’m inclined to say that there is some message that might be trying to be conveyed to you. And the answer, then, might be to figure out what that is. And I think when you do, you might be able to put the thing to rest.”

Here’s how to figure out what’s triggering your recurring dreams.

For some recurring dreams, the message is straightforward — if you repeatedly dream about running late for school or work, you’re probably just often nervous about being unprepared for those things. But others, despite their commonness, might not have a universal meaning, requiring you do some soul-searching to learn more.

“In interpretation, we really don’t believe there are universal symbols, but that (it’s) what an individual’s own sort of personal symbol system is and their associations to something are,” Barrett said.

In addition to unpreparedness, other common themes of recurring dreams include social embarrassment, feeling inadequate compared with others, and danger in the form of car crashes or natural disasters, Barrett and Dimitriu said.

Some people have dreams revolving around test anxiety even if they haven’t been in school in years, Barrett said. This can reflect a general fear of failure or a sense of being judged by authority figures. Dreams of tooth loss or damage might have to do with loss of something else in your life, feelings of hopelessness or defenselessness, or health concerns.

When faced with a recurring dream, ask yourself what the message could be, Dimitriu said. What is your relationship to the things or people in the dream? What are your fears and belief systems about those things? What are the top five things in your life that might be triggering it or related to it? What are you really worried about?

“I definitely think it’s fine to do informal dream interpretation, either on your own or with a close, trusted person who may just sort of see things to question in it that you don’t,” Barrett said.

People with post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety are more likely to have recurring dreams, especially ones with anxious natures, Dimitriu said. A PTSD dream stems from a trauma so severe it keeps returning as a nightmare.

“The brain is trying to resolve something and lay it to rest,” he added. But “in people with PTSD, their dreams are so vivid that they wake them up from sleep. And that becomes the problem because the dream never gets processed. … And that’s why it recurs — it’s unfinished work.”

Sometimes recurring dreams can point to biological sources, too. “People with sleep apnea will report dreams of, like, drowning, suffocating, giant waves, gasping for air, being underwater or being choked,” Dimitriu said, when they’re actually experiencing breathing interruptions because of their condition.

There can be environmental triggers as well, such as a car alarm down the street or a dripping faucet, he added, which can set off dreams with imagery of those things.

Once you have a better sense of what your worries are, writing about them before bed can be helpful for alleviating negative recurring dreams and stress in general.

“For my patients and myself, journaling is such a powerful tool,” Dimitriu said. Meditating could also help.

When you know what fear is behind your dream, Dimitriu recommended processing it via a three-column method used in cognitive behavioral therapy: What is your automatic thought? What’s your automatic feeling? Lastly, what’s the more reality-based alternative thought?

Dream rehearsal therapy, also known as imagery rehearsal therapy, can be effective for both recurring dreams and nightmares. This approach involves writing down in detail the narrative elements of the dream, then rewriting it so it ends positively. Right before falling asleep, you’d set the intention to re-dream by saying aloud, “If or when I have the beginnings of the same bad dream, I will be able to instead have this much better dream with a positive outcome.”

If your recurring dreams are making you stressed or unhappy, causing other symptoms, or starting to impair your ability to function on a regular basis, it’s time to seek professional help, experts said.

Recurring dreams could also stem from poor sleep hygiene, Soffer-Dudek said.

“A lot of awkward things happen in the night when people are sleep deprived, drink caffeine too late, drink alcohol too late, worked too late or slept four hours last night because they stayed up too late,” he said. “The fundamental core and foundation of healthy dream life starts with healthy sleep.”

Dimitriu also recommended limiting distractions that interfere with your time to reflect and process, such as spending unnecessary time on your phone or always filling the silence.

When your mind is always occupied, “what happens is all that processing has to happen somewhere,” he said. “So now there’s more pressure for that to happen in your dream life.”

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Sleep like a pro with these 6 expert tips | CNN

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Editor’s Note: Dana Santas, known as the “Mobility Maker,” is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of the book “Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief.”



CNN
 — 

How you sleep each night plays a vital role in how you perform in your daily life. So, it’s no wonder that professional sports teams tap the expertise of sleep doctors to ensure their elite athletes get the quality sleep they need to perform at the highest levels.

As a mobility coach who works in Major League Baseball, I can attest that during spring training, when every day starts early, players and coaches alike dread losing an hour of sleep when we “spring forward” for Daylight Saving Time.

It’s not just professional baseball players who struggle. A 2022 study found that more than 30% of adults have reported an hour of sleep debt — when you sleep less than your body needs — while nearly 1 in 10 adults had a sleep debt of two hours or more.

Adults need at least seven hours of solid sleep at night, according to the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep debt and irregular sleep duration are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, dementia, obesity and mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.

I asked two of my favorite MLB sleep experts to share some of the same tips they provide to professional baseball players, so that anyone can learn to sleep like a pro.

It’s important to get the recommended seven-plus hours of sleep nightly.

Sticking with a regularly scheduled bedtime and wake time helps, according to Dr. Cheri D. Mah, a sleep physician specializing in the sleep and performance of elite athletes. “Our bodies like regularity and will anticipate sleep with a regular sleep schedule,” Mah said. “As a reminder, set a daily alarm on your phone to go off 30 minutes before you want to start your wind-down routine.”

Pay attention to what your body and brain are telling you about your sleep schedule, suggested Dr. Chris Winter, a neurologist and host of the “Sleep Unplugged” podcast. “If you go to bed at 9 p.m. but it always takes you two hours to fall asleep, why not try going to bed later?”

If you want to sleep better, you need an environment conducive to sleep. “Make your room like a cave,” Mah said, “You want it to be really dark, quiet and cool — as well as comfortable.”

She recommends getting comfortable bedding, using blackout curtains or eye masks, wearing earplugs and setting the room temperature at 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (about 16 to 19 degrees Celsius).

Do you judge how well you slept based on how fast you fell asleep?

The amount of time it takes you to fall asleep, called the speed of sleep latency, is an inaccurate gauge for sleep quality, according to Winter. How long it takes to fall asleep varies from person to person. The consensus of most sleep experts, including Winter, is that the average sleep latency is five to 20 minutes.

“Someone who is asleep ‘before their head hits the pillow’ is not a champion sleeper any more than an individual who can eat their entire dinner in three minutes is a highly nutritious eater,” Winter said. “That can often be a red flag and not a sign of great sleep.”

Many people jump right into bed with a racing mind, Mah said, which results in difficulty sleeping. She suggests that her clients create a 20- to 30-minute wind-down routine to help them transition to sleep. Activities could include gentle yoga, breathing exercises and reading, “just not on a tablet or phone that emits sleep-disturbing blue light frequencies,” she said.

Doing activities such as gentle yoga shortly before bedtime can help to ease a racing mind.

Both Mah and Winter report that getting people to refrain from technology use the hour before bedtime presents the biggest challenge for their clients. “It’s hard to convince people to change a behavior that doesn’t cause immediate pain,” Winter added.

Despite the popularity of “night cap” cocktails, Mah and Winter agree that alcohol is an impediment to sleep. They suggest that it be avoided entirely or at least not enjoyed in the hours before bed. They also recommend limiting caffeine intake later in the day. “Caffeine has a half-life of about six hours, so it’s best to cut it out in the late afternoon and early evening,” Mah added.

Along with all the other health benefits of regular exercise, research shows a strong link with better quality sleep, which Winter frequently points out to his clients. “If you are complaining about your sleep and not exercising, you better have a good reason for not doing it,” he said. “From a research perspective, it is far more effective at deepening sleep and improving its quality than any fad tech gadget in existence today … and it’s free!”

There is one caveat: Because some research has shown that the benefits of exercise are mitigated and can even hurt sleep quality when performed later at night, avoid vigorous exercise at least one hour before bed.

Sleep debt is the difference between your needed amount of sleep and the sleep you actually get, accumulating over time, if not paid back.

Many clients come to Mah without any knowledge of the concept of sleep debt and the need to repay it. More so, she said they are surprised to find that “it often takes longer than one night or one weekend to significantly pay back accumulated sleep debt.”

If you’ve built up sleep debt, try going to sleep an hour earlier or sleeping an hour later over a few days — or however long it takes for you to feel adequately rested.

Catching up on sleep can increase your daily alertness and help ward off inflammation.

Catching up on your sleep isn’t just good for increasing daily alertness — a 2020 study found that adults who caught up on sleep were less likely to show elevated inflammation levels, which contribute to chronic disease.

At the same time, it’s important not to stress about sleep, Winter said. Too much emphasis on things such as “falling asleep faster” or the notion that people “can’t sleep,” creates a sense of fear that he deems “highly problematic.”

“It’s physiologically impossible to not sleep at all, so nature has you covered,” he said. “Control the variables you can control, like schedule, environment, etc., and put it out of your mind.”

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The 4-7-8 method that could help you sleep | CNN

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Editor’s Note: Sign up for the Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep.



CNN
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Falling asleep or coming down from anxiety might never be as easy as 1-2-3, but some experts believe a different set of numbers – 4-7-8 – comes much closer to doing the trick.

The 4-7-8 technique is a relaxation exercise that involves breathing in for four counts, holding that breath for seven counts and exhaling for eight counts, said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, via email.

Also known as the “relaxing breath,” 4-7-8 has ancient roots in pranayama, which is the yogic practice of breath regulation, but was popularized by integrative medicine specialist Dr. Andrew Weil in 2015.

“What a lot of sleep difficulties are all about is people who struggle to fall asleep because their mind is buzzing,” said Rebecca Robbins, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate scientist in the division of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “But exercises like the 4-7-8 technique give you the opportunity to practice being at peace. And that’s exactly what we need to do before we go to bed.”

“It does not ‘put you to sleep,’ but rather it may reduce anxiety to increase likelihood of falling asleep,” said Joshua Tal, a New York state-based clinical psychologist.

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The 4-7-8 method doesn’t require any equipment or specific setting, but when you’re initially learning the exercise, you should sit with your back straight, according to Weil. Practicing in a calm, quiet place could help, said Robbins. Once you get the hang of it, you can use the technique while lying in bed.

During the entire practice, place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue behind your upper front teeth, as you’ll be exhaling through your mouth around your tongue. Then follow these steps, according to Weil:

  • Completely exhale through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
  • Close your mouth and quietly inhale through your nose to a mental count of four.
  • Hold your breath for a count of seven.
  • Exhale through your mouth, making a whoosh sound for a count of eight.
  • Repeat the process three more times for a total of four breath cycles.

Keeping to the ratio of four, then seven and then eight counts is more important than the time you spend on each phase, according to Weil.

“If you have trouble holding your breath, speed the exercise up but keep the ratio (consistent) for the three phases. With practice you can slow it all down and get used to inhaling and exhaling more and more deeply,” his website advised.

When you’re stressed out, your sympathetic nervous system – responsible for your fight-or-flight response – is overly active, which makes you feel overstimulated and not ready to relax and transition into sleep, Dasgupta said. “An active sympathetic nervous system can cause a fast heart rate as well as rapid and shallow breathing.”

The 4-7-8 breathing practice can help activate your parasympathetic nervous system – responsible for resting and digesting – which reduces sympathetic activity, he added, putting the body in a state more conducive to restful sleep. Activating the parasympathetic system also gives an anxious brain something to focus on besides “why am I not sleeping?” Tal said.

While proponents may swear by the method, more research is needed to establish clearer links between 4-7-8 and sleep and other health benefits, he added.

“There is some evidence that 4-7-8 breathing helps reduce anxious, depressive and insomniac symptoms when comparing pre- and post-intervention, however, there are no large randomized control trials specifically on 4-7-8 breathing to my knowledge,” Tal said. “The research on (the effect of) diaphragmatic breathing on these symptoms in general is spotty, with no clear connection due to the poor quality of the studies.”

A team of researchers based in Thailand studied the immediate effects of 4-7-8 breathing on heart rate and blood pressure among 43 healthy young adults. After participants had these health factors and their fasting blood glucose measured, they performed 4-7-8 breathing for six cycles per set for three sets, interspersed with one minute of normal breathing between each set. Researchers found the technique improved participants’ heart rate and blood pressure, according to a study published in July 2022.

When researchers have observed the effects of breathing techniques like 4-7-8 breathing, they have seen an increase in theta and delta brain waves, which indicate someone is in the parasympathetic state, Robbins said. “Slow breathing like the 4-7-8 technique reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and improves pulmonary function.”

The 4-7-8 technique is relatively safe, but if you’re a beginner, you could feel a little lightheaded at first, Dasgupta said.

“Normal breathing is a balance between breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. When you upset this balance by exhaling more than you inhale, (it) causes a rapid reduction in carbon dioxide in the body,” he said. “Low carbon dioxide levels lead to narrowing of the blood vessels that supply blood to the brain. This reduction in blood supply to the brain leads to symptoms like lightheadedness. This is why it is often recommended to start slowly and practice three to four cycles at a time until you are comfortable with the technique.”

The more you practice the 4-7-8 technique, the better you’ll become, and the more your body and mind will incorporate it into your usual roster of tools for managing stress and anxiety, Dasgupta said. Some people combine this method with other relaxation practices such as progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, mindfulness or meditation.

Unmanaged stress can rear its head in the form of sleep difficulties, Robbins said. “But when we can manage our stress over the course of the day (and) implement some of these breathing techniques, we can put ourselves in the driver’s seat instead of being victim to events that happen in our lives.”

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New treatment for nightmares holds promise, study finds | CNN

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CNN
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Heart pounding, I sit bolt upright in bed, flushed, sweaty and utterly panicked. My brain has snatched me from a nightmare — a dream so alarming I wake up.

I’ve only had one or two such night terrors, but for people suffering from trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety, frightening dreams may come night after night, ruining their sleep and ultimately their health.

Visions from nightmares can also creep like dark shadows into the light of the next day, disrupting a person’s ability to focus and think. Mood plummets, and anxiety rises. Days may be filled with an intense fear of falling asleep and trigger yet another terrifying dream.

Such symptoms can lead to a diagnosis of nightmare disorder, a sleep condition that affects about 4% of adults, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Treatment can include stress reduction, counseling, gradual desensitization and medications, but the gold standard is imagery rehearsal therapy, a form of cognitive behavioral training that teaches people to reimagine their nightmares with positive endings. Still, not everyone with nightmare disorder responds to the treatment, experts say.

Now a new study has added a twist — playing a sound the person’s memory has associated with a more positive outcome during REM (rapid eye movement) or the dream stage of sleep. The result was a fourfold reduction in nightmares over the basic therapy alone.

“As far as I know, this is the first clinical and therapeutic study that uses target memory activation to accelerate and enhance therapy,” said lead author Dr. Lampros Perogamvros, a psychiatrist at the Sleep Laboratory of the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva.

“This is a promising development. It does appear that adding a well-timed sound during REM sleep augments the effect of image rehearsal therapy … which is a standard and perhaps one of the most effective non-pharmacologic therapies at this time,” said Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler, lead author of the most recent American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines on nightmares.

“The result should be replicated,” said Morgenthaler, who was not involved in the study. “But I was a bit excited at this new possibility.”

Imagery rehearsal therapy has four basic steps that can be taught in one day, experts say. First, people are asked to write down every detail of their nightmare. Next, each person rewrites the nightmare with a positive arch, making sure that it ends with a pleasant or empowering solution or resolution.

Now the practice begins. The reworked dream must be rehearsed five to 20 minutes each day until it’s woven into the memory circuits of the brain. Once that is in place, it’s time to put it into action by rehearsing the new dream just before bed.

In the new study, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, researchers added a twist to the therapy. Eighteen people with nightmare disorder heard a neutral sound — a piano cord — while they reinvented their nightmares in more positive ways. A control group of 18 people who also had nightmare disorder heard no additional sound, while they reworked their dreams.

All 36 people were given a headband called an actimeter to wear at night for two weeks. In addition to monitoring the stages of sleep, the device delivered sound in a way that would not wake the sleeper — via bone conduction.

“One of the significant things about this study’s intervention is the use of relatively new technology that can more accurately time the stimulus to true REM sleep,” said Morgenthaler, a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic School of Medicine.

“Most wearable devices do not accurately measure actual REM sleep,” he added. “Of course, further study might find that the timing is not that critical — but that remains to be determined.”

The sound was delivered to both groups every 10 seconds during the dream stage of sleep over a two-week period. In this case, “imagery rehearsal therapy worked for all of the participants, including the control group,” Perogamvros said.

“But in the experimental group, where the sound was positively associated, the decrease was significantly bigger — they had nearly four times fewer nightmares,” he added.

Imagery rehearsal therapy also lessened overall distress, measures of mood and sleep quality in both groups, but nightmare reduction happened faster in the experimental group and persisted at a three-month follow-up, Perogamvros said. In addition, members of the group who heard the sound reported more joyful dream experiences during their dreams than those in the control group.

Additional research is needed to verify these results and expand upon the concept, but Perogamvros said he hoped the technique might lead to breakthroughs for the about 30% of patients who are unresponsive to imagery rehearsal therapy, also called IRT.

“The ideas underpinning the hypothesis that targeted memory reactivation might boost the effects of IRT have merit,” Morgenthaler said, “and this elegant test of that hypothesis strengthens that theory.”



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