10 Nighttime Routines To Fight Off Bad Dreams

Waking up from a bad dream is an incredibly unsettling feeling that keeps many people from easing into peaceful sleep each night. Dreaming is a regular occurrence for most humans, and it's reported by Psychology Today that we dream a total of five to six years of our time on earth!

Each night we cycle into our phase of sleep called rapid eye movement (REM) about four or five times. At the end of REM, as we are coming out of deeper sleep, our brain begins to tell stories that incorporate events or people from stored memories. Harvard Medical School describes dreaming as "recent autobiographical episodes that become woven with past memories to create a new memory that can be referenced later." Sometimes our dreams feature events or people that we don't remember experiencing or meeting while awake, which is what makes dreaming feel so mystical.

Unfortunately, humans also suffer from nightmares, in which the story being told during our dream can feature traumatizing images or scenarios and feel frightening, confusing, or threatening. People who have nightmares can frequently struggle with bouts of insomnia or chronic sleep deprivation to avoid potential bad dreams. The good news is that nightmares are often caused by specific life stressors and the frequency of bad dreams can be reduced through self-care. Consider trying these tips before bedtime to reduce or eliminate nightmares.

Getting sufficient sleep is also an important factor in reducing the possibility of bad dreams. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults ages 18 to 60 get seven or more hours of sleep. Insufficient sleep can cause REM rebound, in which a person experiences longer sleeping bouts or longer cycles of REM when asleep. This rebound can contribute to an increase in vivid dreams and, consequently, more nightmares, according to Sleep Foundation.

The experts at Sleep.com have some tips for improving the consistency of your sleep schedule. Try to stick with a better routine throughout the entire day and use a wind-down routine before bed. Journal your day so that you can track any disruptions or stressors that might be keeping you from a consistent sleep schedule. If you need to move your hours of sleep, do so in 30-minute increments over the course of three to four days.

The CDC also suggests that you resist the urge to stay up late or sleep in on the weekends and try to remain consistent seven days a week to improve the quality of sleep overall. But remember that as long as you are getting sufficient sleep, it doesn't really matter what time of day it is. "If you go to bed consistently at 1 a.m. and wake up at 9 a.m., feeling well-rested, there is no problem," Dr. Carolina Marcus told Sleep.com.

The importance of a good sleeping environment cannot be underestimated in the quest to eliminate bad dreams. A room that is too warm, lacks air flow, or has distracting light or noise can keep you from falling asleep or staying asleep. Even worse, nightmares are more likely to occur if your sleeping environment is too warm.

Dr. Neil Stanley explained to The Daily Mail that a warm room can cause a person to have less restful sleep. If the cycle of sleeping is disturbed, this can lead to increased brain activity during sleep, which results in more dreams that are more vivid in nature. Dreaming more vividly can spell disaster for someone who has a nightmare. The images from a bad dream may be more easily remembered and more traumatizing.

Dr. Stanley suggests sleeping in a room that is between 61 and 64 degrees Fahrenheit, perhaps with the window open, and to "sleep under natural fibers, cottons, and silks that will keep you cool." According to the CDC, it is also best to use darkening drapes, remove any source of white or blue light, and use earplugs if noise cannot be reduced or eliminated. The idea is to encourage less brain activity while sleeping and allow the body to cool off and cycle through the sleep phases properly.

If you like grazing in front of the fridge or pantry before bedtime, it might be impacting your ability to recall bad dreams. According to Dr. Stanley, the body functions to cool itself by a few degrees during sleep (via The Daily Mail). Because digestion requires energy, which generates heat, eating before bed can make it difficult for your body to cool off enough to get uninterrupted sleep.

Harvard Medical School confirms that being more wakeful during the night means that vivid dreams, like nightmares, can be more easily recalled. A large dinner heavy in carbohydrates, for example, may cause the body to have periods of wakefulness throughout the night, and traumatizing dreams can be fresh in the memory.

It has been reported anecdotally that certain foods, such as spicy foods, directly contribute to nightmares. Frontiers in Psychology found that about 17.8% of surveyed subjects believe that certain foods impact dreams directly. However, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim, even though popular culture and media continue to circulate the idea. Still, knowing that late-night food will have you waking up more often, it's best to stop eating around two to three hours before bed, according to Rise Science.

Many people like to reach for a glass of wine or cocktail nightcap as a way to wind down for bed. Despite the drowsy effect it may cause, alcohol is actually disruptive to sleep. Alcohol can induce sleepy effects when it is first consumed, but coming down from the effects of alcohol causes wakeful periods. The sleeper is also not able to cycle into REM as effectively.

Neurologist Karen Lee told Forbes that many of her patients also report haunting and evocative dreams after consuming alcohol. Lee explained that this is the result of your brain working to metabolize the alcohol during sleep. "Your body is trying to make sense of what you're experiencing, so if you've become particularly emotional during a night of drinking, those thoughts and emotions can seep into the content of your dreams," said Lee. If you suffer from frequent bad dreams, it's best to reduce alcohol consumption to improve dream quality.

If you are trying to stop drinking altogether, or if you are drastically reducing the amount of alcohol you typically consume, this may also have an impact on sleeping and dreaming. Futures Recovery Healthcare reports that alcohol withdrawals can be the cause of bad dreams, in addition to disrupted sleep or insomnia.

If you are having bad dreams so often that it's keeping you from getting consistent sleep, you may have nightmare disorder. According to Mayo Clinic, there is no test for the disorder, so it's important that you document your sleep habits and patterns to determine with your doctor if your bad dreams have turned into a disorder.

There are therapy modalities designed by psychologists, neuroscientists, and sleep experts to help with bad dreams. Imagery rehearsal therapy is one, and exposure, relaxation, and rescripting therapy (ERRT) is another. These are types of cognitive behavioral approaches to reducing the distress of nightmares. These modalities are often used on individuals with nightmares related to PTSD.

These types of modalities allow an individual to rewrite the ending of a bad dream. The journaling and script-writing are done after the person is awake from a dream. Characters and scenarios can be changed to give the dreamer a sense of control over the narrative and the outcome. The new script is then read and processed while awake to minimize the negative emotional effects of the bad dreams. Experts at sleep study programs like the one at The University of Tulsa have developed different modalities for specific conditions, such as ERRT for active military and veterans, or for individuals with bipolar disorder, for example.