Can Nightmares Be Good for You?

New research indicates – nightmares are good for you!

The 7 Day Nightmare: Mon 29th October - Sun 4th November, Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror

Sky Movies announced today that they have collaborated with The DREAMS (Dream Research and Experimental Approaches to the Mechanisms of Sleep) Foundation in Canada to reveal that contrary to the popular myth - nightmares can actually be good for you.

Recent research (conducted over a two year period) has been released to coincide with Sky Movies’ 7 Day Nightmare – a season of great horror films all week on Sky Movies Sci-Fi & Horror. Compiled in collaboration with the renowned Dream and Nightmare Research Laboratory at Montreal's Sacré-Coeur Hospital, The DREAMS Foundation has found that most nightmares and recurring dreams can provide an extremely valuable message to the dreamer.

The DREAMS Foundation explains that we are lucky to have nightmares as they provide a natural ‘pressure-release’ therapy for the psyche and can provide an early cure to real-life problems and dilemmas – read notes to editors for some of the most common nightmares and what they reveal.

Leading dream analyst and Executive Director of the DREAMS Foundation, Craig Webb, believes that embracing and transforming our worst dreams and nightmares is more productive than wishing we were rid of them and Halloween is the perfect time to face these scary visions.

"Nightmares and especially recurring dreams are usually warnings, like the oil light on our car or the smoke alarm in our house, telling us that something is wrong and that we need to address it as soon as possible," explains Craig Webb.

Though it has been scientifically proven that we all dream every night, fear of nightmares or other anxieties or misguided beliefs about dreams and the unconscious can block our dream recall as Craig expertly explains…

"People are often scared or frustrated by their nightmares and recurring dreams because they don't know what to do about them other than switch off their dreams entirely to stop being upset and tired during the day," says Webb. "It is not that we want to people to have more nightmares, but we are trying to encourage people not to repress a natural release. This usually forces blocked emotions to build up underneath, just like putting tape over a festering wound. Better to address the source of the troubling dreams, heal and transform the emotions and change unhealthy waking habits, and then the unpleasant nights of lost sleep will usually stop by themselves."

On Halloween night Sky Movies and The DREAMS Foundation are encouraging people to follow these 7 simple steps to embrace and champion your bad dreams before falling to sleep. With any luck you’ll be able to stop your nightmares recurring and bring out a positive change…

1) Select a recurring nightmare or upsetting dream and write it down.

2) Think of a different ending to the dream that leaves you feeling empowered, free and confident.

3) Before lying down to fall asleep sit in a comfortable position

4) Relax your body and mind completely for a couple minutes.

5) Breathe deeply - very slowly in and out.

6) Tense and relax different parts of your body in turn.

7) Mentally visualise or remember the dream you’ve selected for this exercise, running through as though you were watching a video, except at the point where things begin to turn unpleasant, replace the old ending with the new empowering one you created earlier, and imagine it as vividly as you can.

Happy Nightmares!