Multiple studies have exonerated dreams of being nonsensical mini-movies played by the brain. Instead, they are now seen as being effective tools with various health benefits including helping problem-solving, memory activation, better learning, dealing effectively with stress and potential threats, and creative inspiration.
While most dreams are neutral and usually forgotten, some keep coming back – either in the exact same way or maybe with a similar theme. Could these recurrent disturbing dreams indicate that the brain is trying to draw our attention toward an issue that may be causing anxiety or conflict, and that needs resolving?
Understanding recurrent dreams
Dr Vivek Padegal, director of pulmonary and sleep medicine, Fortis Hospital, Bengaluru, and a diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM) says that recurrent bad dreams could be due to stress, anxiety and a recent bad experience (such as pain and illness). They could also indicate serious issues like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Usage of hallucinogenic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and cannabis stimulants, and withdrawal from these drugs and alcohol can also cause bad dreams, says Dr Padegal.
Nightmares are harmless?
Dr Hozefa Bhinderwala, consulting psychiatrist, Saifee Hospital, Mumbai, says nightmares are a harmless creative conjuring of a creative person’s brain and can be attributed to good sleep. He blames the negative connotation surrounding the dreams.
“It’s the belief that is the problem and not the nightmare,” he says. “When a person has a nightmare it’s their preconceived notions about nightmares that make them feel uneasy and not the nightmare as such.”
Shruti Sanganeria, a Bengaluru-based, licensed clinical hypnotherapist, psychotherapist, and International Coaching Federation, US, certified personal transformation coach, says taking notice of nightmares or recurrent dreams is a choice. She says that nightmares or unpleasant dreams are the subconscious mind’s way of communicating a specific message, hence it’s up to each individual whether they want to brush them aside or take notice and do something about them.
Dr Padegal says if disturbing dreams are a result of substance abuse, they can be of limited value.
Psychoanalysis and dream therapy
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, claimed that the brain has three structures: the ego (the realistic part), id (the instinctive part) and the superego (the moral part). While dreaming the ego tries to maintain control and agreement between the id and the superego. This results in conflicts, leading to anxiety, depression and abnormal behaviour. Freud believed that for treating these symptoms people should seek psychoanalytical treatment that involves dream therapy.
Today, organizations such as the British Council for Counselling and Psychotherapy in Leicestershire, UK are considering dream therapy as a professional service.
Role of the subconscious mind
Ali Khwaja, counsellor, life-skills coach and chairman of Banjara Academy (a Bengaluru-based counselling and life-skills training centre), says dream therapy involves going into the subconscious mind of a person and bringing out the experiences or thoughts that they may be unable to recall in the normal course.
Sanganeria says the therapy is about referring to dreams for healing purposes. She says dreams are communication from the unconscious. “We can use the information provided in the dream for the purpose of healing a person,” says Sanganeria. “Many people get disturbed by the unpleasant content of recurring dreams and it haunts them during their waking hours. Dream therapy helps bring peace to them.”
Dr Padegal calls dream therapy a concept of analysis to try and see if dreams provide any significant insights into an individual’s mental processes to get to the root cause of their emotional issues.
What is dream therapy?
Khwaja says, “Dream therapy works like any other therapy to provide relief to a person who is going through a difficult time. It can heal past hurts.”
People may have certain emotional disturbances but are unable to identify the cause or what is preventing them from leading a normal life. Dream therapy is an alternate therapy that can help when other traditional methods are not giving results, he says.
Dr Bhinderwala says dream therapy can only motivate people and provide hope to do better, but he says there is no scientific validity in the therapy.
Sanganeria believes that science has found ways to connect to the human mind through brain activity, sleep-wake cycles and has been trying to tap into dreams. She says the therapy has helped many of her clients to feel better, make better decisions and lead more quality lives. “It’s like detangling a ball of wool and neatly arranging it,” she says. “Deciphering dreams can iron out things in the psyche and spring clean the mind.”
Sanganeria mentions treating a 45-year-old woman who had recurrent dreams of being forced to open her father’s grave by her mother. The visuals of her nightmare deeply disturbed her waking hours and she used to feel very ‘heavy and weird’ in her chest. After just one session of dream therapy, the woman was able to discover that she was unable to accept her father’s sudden death and had deep-seated anger for her mother which was manifesting as a nightmare. Post-therapy, the woman was able to accept her situation and make peace with her mother.
Dream therapy as a saviour
A case study published in the 2019 issue of the International Journal of Dream Research gives another example of how dream therapy can help achieve better health. It mentions how a 25-year-old woman in Tehran, Iran accepted the reality of death and moved on to calmer waters. She was referred to a psychologist due to recurrent dreams of threat and death. She had suffered from a major depressive disorder after a traumatic event in her life and experienced a loss of interest and energy in daily activities, insomnia, fear of death, and a sense of worthlessness.
After five sessions of psychotherapy, she saw a dream in which her unconscious mind went to the deepest memory and selected a middle-aged woman she hadn’t seen for more than 20 years but who she loved. When this woman in the dream conveyed a message about death, undergoing the therapy could accept it and have less anxiety.
After this symbolic dream, the frequency of her dreams reduced, and eventually phased out. After six months, she started experiencing regularized sleep and appetite patterns, participated in social activities, and enjoyed her usual activities such as studying and sports.
How are dream therapies done?
Khwaja says the procedure varies from therapist to therapist since there are no strict guidelines. It can be as simple as asking the client to record dreams and narrate, which the therapist analyzes and gives feedback. It could also be done through ‘sleep labs’ where a patient is monitored through electrodes while he sleeps, and electronic signals are measured to see disturbances and brain activity.
He says different people combine dream therapy with other therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy, gestalt therapy (using role-play to resolve conflicts) and hypnotherapy (using relaxation to create a focused mind state) based on their expertise.
“The general procedure is to narrate the dream, followed by questions from the therapist about the time of the dream, the feelings it evoked, the body sensations it created, and what the dream meant to the person (the non-hypnotic stage) followed by deep healing (hypnotic state),” says Sanganeria.
We use the client-centric approach which involves deciphering what the dream or symbols specifically mean to the person without generalization and helping them gain from the dream, she says.
Sanganeria feels that just like how diet is only a part of the fitness regime, dream therapy should also be considered as only one aspect of the healing journey. Other aspects like self-reflection and understanding oneself in terms of fears and needs should also be considered.
However, there are limitations. “There are times when people don’t remember the entire dream, so that can be limiting during the therapy,” says Sanganeria.
