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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast am on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: What creates these real nightmares when we go to sleep?

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Speaker 1: Is it something an event that happened during the day.

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Speaker 1: Is it something that's troubling us? Is it something we ate?

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Speaker 1: What doesn't well? Actually, George, It's all of those things

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Speaker 1: and more. There are very many reasons why we have nightmares.

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Speaker 1: So on the level of what happens in the brain,

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Speaker 1: our fight or flight reactions occur in an ancient part

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Speaker 1: of the brain called the amygdala, is also known as

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Speaker 1: the emotional accelerator, and the amygdala is basically completely free

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Speaker 1: in dreams because the prefrontal cortex shuts down in sleep.

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Speaker 1: So all of this aggression and fear and sadness is

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Speaker 1: much more likely to take us into an extreme state

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Speaker 1: when we're actually dreaming. So that's kind of what happens

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Speaker 1: in the brain to make this happen. And then on

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Speaker 1: the psychological level, nightmares have a processing function. I often

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Speaker 1: use the analogy of a volcano. You know, if we've

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Speaker 1: got too much going on, too many strong emotions that

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Speaker 1: we haven't processed. At some point, they all just come

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Speaker 1: exploding out of us like lava. Out of a volcano,

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Speaker 1: and that is the nightmare experience. Because when we have

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Speaker 1: unresolved traumatic experiences, they leave a memory of fear embedded

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Speaker 1: in the brain, and during dreaming, this fearful rule material

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Speaker 1: is magnified into scary imageries. And then some people have

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Speaker 1: nightmares that are caused by sleep disturbances or even by

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Speaker 1: the medication they're taking. So if anyone listening is having

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Speaker 1: very frequent nightmares once or more a week, or perhaps

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Speaker 1: every night, then very important to speak to your doctor

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Speaker 1: and see if any of your medication is causing this.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's interesting too. How about the supplement melatonin. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well that's a supplement that people usually take to take

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Speaker 1: them into a deeper sleep. It's often used for people

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Speaker 1: with insomnia, and yeah, that can help people or sometimes

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Speaker 1: you have nightmare issues. But as you'll find out today

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Speaker 1: when we talk about it, my own view is that

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Speaker 1: the best way to deal with nightmares is actually to

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Speaker 1: work with them to transform them. Because nightmares, you can

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Speaker 1: think of them as being red flags. They flag up emotional, psychological,

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Speaker 1: or physical issues even in the body. So sometimes if

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Speaker 1: we have a physical illness, then signals from the body

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Speaker 1: are passed into the dreaming mind to let us know

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Speaker 1: that we have this illness. One guy dreamed he was

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Speaker 1: being tortured with hot coals under his chin, and he

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Speaker 1: actually discovered very soon afterwards that he has thyroid cancer.

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Speaker 1: So it can even be a message from the body.

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Speaker 1: But generally, on the psychological level, nightmares can be seen

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Speaker 1: as honest mirrors. They show us how we're really feeling

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Speaker 1: about a situation. They show us what's really happening in

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Speaker 1: our body or in our life, and if we don't

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Speaker 1: act on that nightmare message, then it will likely return.

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Speaker 1: So my view on nightmares is that they can considered

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Speaker 1: as gifts in ugly wrapping paper, you know. But once

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Speaker 1: we take our courage in both hands and unwrap this

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Speaker 1: nightmare to find out what the message or the meaning is,

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Speaker 1: that's when we receive the gift of insight or wisdom

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Speaker 1: or some sort of very practical advice, often to help

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Speaker 1: us in our lives, to help us to move forward.

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Speaker 1: So there are many reasons for having nightmares, and are

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Speaker 1: there different types of nightmares? Clear in that some people

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Speaker 1: may see it as a gift, some people may see

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Speaker 1: it as something horrible. Oh they are horrible, Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean they totally feel horrible when we have them. They

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Speaker 1: can be seen as a gift when we unwrap them

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Speaker 1: and work with their message. But there are also many

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Speaker 1: different types of nightmares. Now, the general definition of a

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Speaker 1: nightmare is that it's a dream that is so upsetting

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Speaker 1: or disturbing that it wakes us up. But in the

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Speaker 1: work that I've been doing recently and in the book,

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Speaker 1: I have a much broader definitely, because so many people

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Speaker 1: were reaching out to me all the time with all

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Speaker 1: sorts of different upsetting sleep experiences. So my definition of

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Speaker 1: nightmares is that they are any upsetting, fearful, or distressing

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Speaker 1: experience that happens during sleep. This is a very broad

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Speaker 1: umbrella and it includes things like sleep paralysis nightmares. Sleep

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Speaker 1: paralysis is when you feel like you're trapped inside your

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Speaker 1: body you can't move, and it often comes along with

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Speaker 1: super scary hallucinations and visions. Other people write to me

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Speaker 1: saying that they have out of body experiences which terrify

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Speaker 1: them because they think they're dying. They think they won't

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Speaker 1: ever get back into their body again. So that's all

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Speaker 1: included under this umbrella of nightmares. Also disturbing pre sleep

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Speaker 1: imagery or hypnogogic imagery. This can also involve very scary images,

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Speaker 1: and some people report sort of floating in this endless

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Speaker 1: black space known as the void, and they feel very

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Speaker 1: scared when they're not used in that space and they

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Speaker 1: don't know what can happen there. They feel alone and

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Speaker 1: very frightened. And then there are recurring nightmares that keep

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Speaker 1: coming back, often because they have a message for us

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Speaker 1: that we are not paying attention to. So the nightmare

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Speaker 1: shouts louder and louder to get our attention. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: then of course there are kind of the more regular

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Speaker 1: nightmares that happened because we've been stressed. That's something going

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Speaker 1: on in our life, and we're processing it in a

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Speaker 1: healthy way by actually letting out some of that extreme

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Speaker 1: energy and emotion during our sleep, and we're abouts in

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Speaker 1: the brain. Do dreams originate? Clara, Well, I mean I

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Speaker 1: have a broader view of dreams as well, because I

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Speaker 1: don't think they're simply something that's produced by the brain.

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Speaker 1: I think they're part of the vaster, wider mind, as

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Speaker 1: I said earlier. So we've got the amygdala, which on

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Speaker 1: the level of brain chemistry, you can say that we

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Speaker 1: are much closer to this ancient part of the brain

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Speaker 1: where we tap into very deep fight or flight reactions.

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Speaker 1: And that's all. It's all into lynch, You know, the

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Speaker 1: way the brain chemistry is the things that have happened

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Speaker 1: during the day. But I also think that dreams are

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Speaker 1: vaster than that. And we see that when we look

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Speaker 1: at dreams that can indicate the future, or dreams that

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Speaker 1: involve meeting up with deceased loved ones, or telepathic dreams

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Speaker 1: and nightmares. So I think we tap into a broader

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Speaker 1: matrix when we dream. I don't think it's all just

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Speaker 1: to do with what goes on in the brain. I

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Speaker 1: do feel that we are much more than simply a

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Speaker 1: body and a brain. Indeed, indeed, now you talk about

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Speaker 1: in the art of transforming nightmares that it could be

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Speaker 1: a healing gift. Explain that. Yeah, so nightmares, nightmares really

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Speaker 1: can offer us so many, so many beautiful opportunities to

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Speaker 1: get to know ourselves better and to understand what happening

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Speaker 1: in our lives. So it often let us know that

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Speaker 1: change is needed or healing is needed. And so an

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Speaker 1: example of a terrifying nightmare, one woman came to a

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Speaker 1: workshop I was giving the psychotherapist on lucid dreaming, and

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Speaker 1: she had an awful nightmare that she was in a

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Speaker 1: very very high building and she noticed there was a

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Speaker 1: little cat on the window legend it was about to

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Speaker 1: fall from the window, and she was terrified and she

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Speaker 1: ran to save the cat, and she was trying so

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Speaker 1: hard to save it that she nearly fell out of

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Speaker 1: the window herself and woke up in a state of

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Speaker 1: extreme fear and panic. And we did a technique I

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Speaker 1: do called lucid writing, which is when we entered a

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Speaker 1: dream and allow it to change and move to give

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Speaker 1: you insight and some sort of transformation. And after she

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Speaker 1: did this, she said she realized that the cat in

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Speaker 1: her dream represented her husband, who was disabled and requiring

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Speaker 1: a lot of care, and she realized that she absolutely

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Speaker 1: needed help. She couldn't save him without actually risking herself

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Speaker 1: because she just could not give anymore, and that she

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Speaker 1: was going to have to get help from an outside nurse.

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Speaker 1: So that nightmare, horrible though it was, made her realize, Okay,

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Speaker 1: this is a moment where I'm going to have to

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Speaker 1: change things in my life. I need to be able

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Speaker 1: to move forward. I need to accept help now with

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Speaker 1: my husband and that's a gift in the sense that

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Speaker 1: it's a protective gift. That's the nightmare saying you cannot

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Speaker 1: go on like this any longer. You must seek help.

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Speaker 1: So that's one kind of gift that we can get

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Speaker 1: from a nightmare. So often it comes in the form

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Speaker 1: of healing. Insight are the understanding of how we really

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Speaker 1: feel about a situation, because nightmares and dreams in general

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Speaker 1: force us to be honest with ourselves about how well

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Speaker 1: we're coping or how we really feel about a relationship.

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Speaker 1: So it just it just takes a bit of courage

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Speaker 1: to get to the heart of the nightmare. And you're

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Speaker 1: an expert on Lucier dreaming, clear and tell me, can

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Speaker 1: you have a Lucier dream in a nightmare? Yeah? You can.

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Speaker 1: You can have you can have a nightmare where you

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Speaker 1: actually become lucid in that nightmare. And then that's amazing

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Speaker 1: because it gives you the opportunity to work with a

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Speaker 1: nightmare in real time while it's actually happening, and that

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Speaker 1: can be incredibly healing, and we have a lot more

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Speaker 1: presence when we become lucid in a nightmare. Then we

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Speaker 1: can become alert to what's happening in our unconscious mind.

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Speaker 1: One example is there was a woman who had a

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Speaker 1: dream that she walked into a room and there was

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Speaker 1: a hunched figure and he looked really kind of awful

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Speaker 1: and bedraggled, and she was scared of this figure, and

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Speaker 1: she became lucid, and she knew that she needs that

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Speaker 1: she had to look upon the face of this figure,

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Speaker 1: and she was scared and reluctant, but because she was lucid,

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Speaker 1: she thought, Okay, I'm going to face this and see

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Speaker 1: what is in my psyche. And she went up to

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Speaker 1: this hunched figure and it turned to face her, and

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Speaker 1: in fact, it was just pure luminosity, incredible spiritual light

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Speaker 1: that shone on her, and she was incredibly moved and

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Speaker 1: realized that she you know, she actually this is part

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Speaker 1: of her, this light. So when we're lucid, we can

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Speaker 1: react in the moment. Because the dream is thought responsive,

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Speaker 1: it reacts to our thoughts and our expectations, the level

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Speaker 1: of fear that we have as well. It will spontaneously

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Speaker 1: change to reflect that. And nightmares can become yeah, very

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Speaker 1: very joyful or deeply spiritual when we become lucid in

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Speaker 1: the dream, And they can also give us an ability

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Speaker 1: to heal the fractured parts of ourselves. Claire, you have

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Speaker 1: what is called a nightmare solution technique. Get was the

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Speaker 1: dreaming imaging nightmare solution. What is that? Yeah, so this

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Speaker 1: is a technique that you can use when you've just

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Speaker 1: woken up from a nightmare. And so the first step

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Speaker 1: is calm yourself down. You know, sometimes we wake up

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Speaker 1: dripping with sweat, with our heart racing. So just you know,

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Speaker 1: have a drink of water and relax, be calm, and

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Speaker 1: then you can check in with yourself and ask yourself

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Speaker 1: if you want to do this work and re enter

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Speaker 1: the nightmare mentally, and if that feels okay for you,

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Speaker 1: then you close your eyes, relax, and go back into

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Speaker 1: the nightmare in your mind's eye. Allow it to come

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Speaker 1: into your head again. But this time you don't need

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Speaker 1: to feel the fear or the guilt or the angst

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Speaker 1: whatever was happening. Because you are the movie director. You're

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Speaker 1: directing this nightmare film. So you can fast forward or

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Speaker 1: rewind or press the pool's button. You're in control. So

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Speaker 1: you go back into it and you rewind it to

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Speaker 1: the tipping point. The tipping point is the point where

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Speaker 1: it turned from a dream into a nightmare. So the

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Speaker 1: moment that the monster leapt out of the closet, for example,

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Speaker 1: you go back to that pic point if there is one.

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Speaker 1: If not, you just restart it whenever you want, replay

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Speaker 1: that nightmare and just respond in any way that feels

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Speaker 1: right you. For example, you could ask a figure in

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Speaker 1: the dream do you have a message for me? Or

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Speaker 1: you could summon help in the dream, get a strong

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Speaker 1: friend to come or a superhero, or you could escape

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Speaker 1: from that situation or fight. This can be psychologically freeing

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Speaker 1: to sometimes to fight the demons that come up in

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Speaker 1: our dreams and just take control. In that way, you

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Speaker 1: could also hug the monster. This has a very integrative

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Speaker 1: function of perhaps you integrating the shadow energy that we

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Speaker 1: all have within us. Yeah, or send love and light

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Speaker 1: to the nightmare and see if that transforms into some

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Speaker 1: sort of healing or resolution, and it will develop magical

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Speaker 1: powers like strength or flight or invisibility. So you can

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Speaker 1: do anything that feels right within that imaginal dream re

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Speaker 1: entry and in fact, this is very very good thing

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Speaker 1: to do for resolution. It's based on nightmare imagery rehearsal therapy,

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Speaker 1: which is when people rewrite the nightmare story and just

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Speaker 1: bring it into their minds and change it, because, if

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Speaker 1: you think about it, a nightmare is a story, and

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Speaker 1: you can change the direction of it a bit like

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Speaker 1: the way that you can change the direction of a

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Speaker 1: train by moving the points. And that sends a really

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Speaker 1: strong message to the unconscious mind that there isn't just

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Speaker 1: one way of reacting in a nightmare. We can change

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Speaker 1: the way we rereact. We can empower ourselves. So it's

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Speaker 1: actually very empowering to do this kind of nightmare work.

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Speaker 1: What would be a bad dream, I mean, to one

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Speaker 1: person might be okay, yeah, you're quite right, And that's

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Speaker 1: an interesting thing. Actually. You know, sometimes people tell me

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Speaker 1: dreams and I think, oh my goodness, that sounds like

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Speaker 1: a terrible nightmare. You know. They'll say, oh, yeah, in

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Speaker 1: the dream, I was ripped apart limb by limb, and

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Speaker 1: all these soldiers just they strew my body parts across

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Speaker 1: the street, and you think, oh, my goodness, I was

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Speaker 1: definitely talking about a nightmare here. But the dream is like, no, no,

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Speaker 1: I didn't feel scared or worried in the dream. And

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Speaker 1: that's that's worth kind of finding out. You know, what

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Speaker 1: is going on here is this a purely symbolic dream,

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Speaker 1: and in fact, in that particular dream, it turned out

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Speaker 1: to be one from a woman who had moved house

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Speaker 1: about twenty five times in her life and felt that

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Speaker 1: parts of her were left in these places from which

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Speaker 1: she'd moved, and the nightmare, sorry, the dream, i should say,

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Speaker 1: was simply showing her that she felt scattered. So that

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Speaker 1: wasn't you know, it wasn't a terrible dream that some

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Speaker 1: dreams that are very clearly nightmares. One guy dreams that

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Speaker 1: he was living in a house with Adolf Hitler, and

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Speaker 1: so Hitler was totally in charge, and one day Hitler

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Speaker 1: decided that he wanted to have sex with the dreamer,

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Speaker 1: and the dreamer was like, no way, that's not happening.

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Speaker 1: But he knew he was going to have to because

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Speaker 1: this was Adolf Hitler. And he woke up from that

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Speaker 1: nightmare in an absolute state, sweating and screaming, fell on

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Speaker 1: the floor and so on. And he worked on this

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Speaker 1: nightmare using the lucid imaging nightmare solution that I've just mentioned.

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Speaker 1: So he went back into the dream. And when he

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Speaker 1: went back into that dream, he realized, hey, hang on

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Speaker 1: the Allies one World War two, So Hitler has no power,

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Speaker 1: and he was able then in that imagined dream re

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Speaker 1: entry to stand up to Hitler. He said, this is

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Speaker 1: my home and this is my body, and you have

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Speaker 1: no power over me. And he realized after that nightmare

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Speaker 1: reentry that Hitler represented the angry, rigid, controlling side of himself,

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Speaker 1: a shadows side of himself. So you can change your

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Speaker 1: response to the nightmare. You can actually change who you

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Speaker 1: are when you dream. You can change who you are

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Speaker 1: in your nightmares and how you react. If you constantly

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Speaker 1: find yourself fleeing from aggressive people or fighting off monsters,

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Speaker 1: you can change the way that you react. And it's

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Speaker 1: very good to do this kind of rehearsal light with

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Speaker 1: the lucid imaging nightmare solution. Go back in, change the scene,

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Speaker 1: change things, and the unconscious will receive that message because

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Speaker 1: we're working with the imagery of the unconsciousness, the language

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Speaker 1: of the unconscious. Listen to more Coast to Coast AM

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Speaker 1: every weeknight at one am Eastern and go to Coast

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Speaker 1: to Coast am dot com for more