How to Stop Having Nightmares and Sleep Better

A man who has just woken up from a bad dream wondering how to stop nightmares.

Written by: Gabrielle Talan

Gabrielle, a former insomniac turned sleep writer, brings over a decade of content expertise to her work. For the past 3 years, she's focused exclusively on sleep topics – a happy choice that helps give her the deep and restful sleep she craves.

Waking up from a bad dream with your heart pounding is a distressing experience. However, nightmares are common. Both adults and children experience them at some point in their lives. So, the occasional bad dream isn't something to be worried about.


However, if you have frequent nightmares that cause significant distress and affect your waking life, it might be a sign of nightmare disorder or an underlying health condition, which warrants professional help.


We wrote this article to discuss how to stop nightmares, what they are and what causes them.

Key Takeaways

  • Nightmares are common, but frequent bad dreams might indicate a more serious sleep disorder or an underlying health condition that requires professional help.

  • Simple lifestyle changes, like maintaining a relaxing bedtime routine, creating a soothing sleep space, and avoiding stimulants, can help prevent or reduce nightmares and improve sleep quality.

  • Progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and therapy options like CBT and imagery rehearsal therapy can help manage nightmares.

Table of Contents

What Are Nightmares?

Nightmares are a type of parasomnia, a classification of sleep disorders that involve vivid and intense dreams that cause you to wake up feeling scared, sad or anxious.


Nightmares occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when most dreams happen. Note that nightmares can also occur during non-REM sleep. They're more common in children, but adults experience them as well.

Why Do We Have Nightmares?

Several factors can cause nightmares, including trauma, stress and anxiety, other sleep conditions, certain medications, substance abuse, fever, and even eating specific foods before hitting the sack.


One reason we have nightmares is trauma. Traumatic experiences can trigger nightmares, which are common in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Stress and anxiety can also lead to nightmares. Other sleep disorders like sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome (RLS) also increase the likelihood of nightmares.


Certain medications, such as those used for high blood pressure and antidepressants, can also lead to nightmares. Substances like alcohol and recreational drugs can also trigger nightmares because they disrupt sleep patterns.


You might also have noticed that when you have an illness, you sometimes experience nightmares, commonly called fever dreams. Several studies suggest that the increase in body temperature can affect the brain and sleep patterns, leading to disturbing dreams.

How to Stop Having Nightmares

Nightmare prevention can be as simple as making specific lifestyle adjustments, including good sleep hygiene. However, there are instances wherein therapy and seeking professional help are necessary.


Let's explore these in more detail below:

Establish a Relaxing Bedtime Routine

Crafting a relaxing bedtime routine that includes activities such as meditation, deep-breathing exercises, yoga, a warm bath, or keeping a sleep journal can help you unwind before bedtime. This routine can also help you process any worrisome thoughts and emotions of the day. Remember that stress and anxiety can trigger nightmares.


Sticking to your bedtime routine, meaning you do it nightly, eventually trains your brain to send signals to your body that it's time to calm down, paving the way for deeper, more restful sleep. You'll experience a more stable sleep cycle and fewer awakenings, which promote better sleep quality overall and reduce the likelihood of nightmares.

Create a Soothing Sleeping Environment

An environment that's conducive to sleep is key to preventing nightmares. Transform your sleep space into a cool, quiet and dark sanctuary.


A calming atmosphere can prevent stress and anxiety, decreasing your risk of nightmares. Also, the right room temperature for sleep can help you drift off by helping your body naturally lower its core temperature, signaling your brain that it's time to wind down for bed. Experts recommend a room temperature of 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal sleep.


You might be wondering why darkness helps you sleep better. When your retinas see light, it sends a signal to your brain that it's time to be awake. Meanwhile, total darkness tells your body that it's time to unwind. It also triggers the release of the sleep hormone, melatonin. That's why it's essential to turn off the lights and limit screen time to at least 2 hours before bed.


A quiet bedroom is essential because it's difficult to drift off and fall asleep in a noisy environment. Furthermore, interrupted sleep lowers your sleep quality, which increases your risk of nightmares.


Understandably, there are instances wherein you don't have control of your sleep environment. It could be your noisy neighbors or a snoring partner, a room that's flooded with outside light, or a lack of an electric fan or AC to keep things cool. There are sleep accessories available to help you fix these issues.


Let's look at the most popular options:


Avoid Stimulants Before Bed

Avoiding stimulants before bedtime promotes more restorative sleep and improves overall sleep quality, which decreases your risk of nightmares.


Stimulants, like caffeine and nicotine, before bedtime can make you feel alert and awake, making it hard to drift off and disrupting sleep patterns. They can also prevent your nervous system from relaxing, which increases the likelihood of stress-induced nightmares.


Caffeine and nicotine can also interfere with your sleep cycles, preventing you from progressing through the sleep stages. They can fragment your sleep, interfering particularly with the REM sleep stage, where nightmares often occur.

Exercise Regularly

Getting your daily dose of exercise can help prevent bad dreams by lowering stress levels and promoting good sleep quality. With regular exercise, you'll fall asleep faster and experience deeper sleep.


Exercise also triggers the release of endorphins, which can relax you and improve your mood, lowering stress and anxiety, known triggers of nightmares. It can also regulate your internal clock to help maintain a more stable sleep-wake cycle, leading to fewer sleep disruptions and fewer bad dreams.


However, exercising before bed can make it difficult to fall asleep. So, it's important to space your workout at least 4 hours before bedtime and avoid intense workouts.

Avoid Heavy Meals Before Bed

The primary reasons consuming heavy meals before bed can cause nightmares are that it can disrupt your sleep patterns and cause discomfort, such as indigestion or acid reflux.


Large meals can increase your metabolism and body temperature, making it harder to get restful sleep. As we mentioned earlier, large meals (especially spicy meals and fatty foods) can cause discomfort. This discomfort may interfere with your transition from one sleep stage to the next, including REM sleep, where dreaming usually occurs.

Keep a Dream Journal

Keeping a dream journal can help you stop nightmares. It's a dedicated notebook for recording bad dreams (and good ones) upon awakening. This technique can help prevent nightmares in several ways.


This practice can increase your awareness of recurring nightmare themes, patterns, situations or triggers. This awareness can help you resolve any underlying issues that are causing your bad dreams. Think of it as a means to reflect on your subconscious so you can manage your anxiety and fears better.


Maintaining a dream journal can reduce anxiety, which can trigger your nightmares. Writing your dreams down can help you process the associated thoughts and emotions, lowering your stress levels and reducing the likelihood of anxiety-induced nightmares.


Finally, keeping a dream journal can promote lucid dreaming, which is when you know that you are, in fact, dreaming while asleep. Practicing lucid dreaming takes time and effort, but it might help you change the course of your nightmare, which reduces its impact. However, it's essential to note that lucid dreaming has risks. It can harm mental health, disrupt sleep and cause you to dissociate from reality.

Examine the Side Effects of Any Medication You Are Taking

Certain medications can cause nightmares. A study published in Sage Journals found that sedative/hypnotics, beta-blockers and amphetamines are most frequently associated with nightmares.(1)


One is altering the levels of brain chemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin or norepinephrine, which can lead to more intense dreams, including nightmares. One example is medications used to treat Parkinson's disease, like Levodopa.


Some medications can also disturb your sleep architecture, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, which suppress REM sleep. A missed dose can lead to something called REM rebound, where you experience a surge of dreaming later in the night. Meanwhile, some beta blockers can suppress the production of melatonin, which leads to disrupted sleep and nightmares.


You might also experience nightmares if you are discontinuing or reducing the use of certain medications because withdrawals can lead to a spike in dream activity. Examples include stopping benzodiazepines and opioids. While not considered medication, alcohol can cause nightmares in the same way.


Some medications can increase brain activity, which in turn can increase anxiety, which might manifest as nightmares.  The most common medications are amphetamines or methylphenidate, used to treat ADHD.

Speak to Someone About the Things That Are Stressing You Out

We can't emphasize enough how stress can result in nightmares. If there are things that are stressing you out and you can't resolve them on your own, speak to a family member or trusted friend. Also, consider joining a support group, so you don't feel alone.


It's important to voice your thoughts and emotions so you can process them. It will help ease the emotional burden that can manifest as nightmares because stress can spill over into your dreams, affecting their content.

Try Therapy

Several types of therapies can help prevent or address nightmares. Some of them require the help of a mental health professional. Others you can do on your own, but initially with the guidance of a healthcare provider.


  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you address the behaviors and thoughts associated with distressing dreams. It helps you change how you currently react to and think about nightmares. It can also ease stress and anxiety, which are nightmare triggers. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and licensed therapists, as well as social workers and counselors, usually provide CBT.

  • Traditional talk therapy involves working with a mental health professional to identify the underlying causes of nightmares, which are often linked to past stress, anxiety and trauma. You'll learn coping strategies, how to process difficult thoughts and emotions with nightmares, and alter the way your mind responds to nightmare triggers.

  • Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) is remembering your nightmare while awake, then creating a less frightening, more positive ending for your dream by writing it down. With consistent practice, you'll eventually train your mind to change the old nightmare with something less frightening or disturbing. You can do IRT on your own, though working with a therapist initially can make it more effective.

  • Other types of therapy include lucid dreaming and hypnosis, which have mixed results. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is particularly effective for trauma-induced nightmares.

When to Speak to a Doctor About Your Nightmares

A man consulting with a doctor on how to stop nightmares.

While an occasional nightmare is not cause for concern, frequent bad dreams that disrupt your nighttime sleep and day-to-day functioning are.


Apart from what was mentioned above, you should see a doctor if you experience the following:


  • Anxiety or fear about going to bed

  • Difficulty drifting off or staying asleep

  • Feeling tired, anxious or disturbed during the day because of your nightmares

  • Nightmares that occur frequently despite good sleep hygiene habits


You might have nightmare disorder, which is characterized by nightmares that happen often and interfere with how you function during the day. Nightmare disorder might include symptoms such as daytime sleepiness, difficulty drifting off, and feeling scared or anxious about sleep because you expect bad dreams. See a healthcare professional to diagnose nightmare disorder and an appropriate treatment plan.


Another possibility is night terrors, which are reported by your bed partner or experienced as unexplained daytime fatigue or injuries. Night terrors are different from nightmares because they involve intense movements like shouting or thrashing in your sleep. People with night terrors don't remember having them when they wake up.

How to Fall Back Asleep After a Nightmare

Falling back asleep after a nightmare can be particularly challenging. The dream may still linger in your mind, along with the negative emotions it evokes. In general, forcing yourself to go back to sleep isn't effective.


Fortunately, several techniques can help make drifting off again easier:


  • Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) involves tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups in your body. PMR helps you release physical tension from the nightmare and shift your focus from distressing to relaxing emotions, helping you fall back asleep.

  • Engaging in deep-breathing exercises helps you fall asleep by activating your body's parasympathetic nervous system, which eases stress. It also stimulates the vagus nerve and reduces cortisol production. By lowering heart rate and helping you relax, deep breathing makes it easier to fall asleep faster. Focusing on your breath can also pull your thoughts away from your nightmare.

  • Listening to a mindfulness app, such as Calm or Headspace, can help you drift off after a distressing dream by relaxing your body and calming your mind. Some apps combine guided meditation with mindfulness techniques and breathing exercises. One way to listen to an app without exposing yourself to blue light from gadget screens is a Bluetooth sleep mask.

  • Visualizing something soothing can also help you fall back asleep after a nightmare. It could be a happy childhood memory or an imagined peaceful image. It can distract your mind, pulling you away from the nightmare and countering the negative emotions and imagery with positive ones.

  • Doing something that relaxes you can also help you drift off after a bad dream. It could be mindful exercises, gentle stretching, or listening to white noise or other sleep-promoting sounds. Experts recommend getting out of bed and going to another room to engage in your relaxing activity until you start feeling sleepy.

  • Turning on a night light is another way to help you fall asleep after a nightmare, according to anecdotal evidence from online forums. Low light can create a sense of warmth, helping soothe the fear and anxiety induced by nightmares. If you choose this technique, use a red night light. This light color has minimal effect on your body's ability to produce melatonin and on your natural sleep cycle.

Conclusion

Nightmares can be unsettling, but they're a common occurrence for most people. The occasional bad dream isn't a cause for concern. However, frequent nightmares that significantly disrupt your sleep and daily life need professional help.


You can prevent or reduce nightmares with simple lifestyle tweaks, such as sticking to a calming bedtime routine and creating a soothing sleep environment. Techniques like progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing can help you fall back asleep after a bad dream. If these don't help, CBT or imagery rehearsal therapy are options.


Did this article help you reduce your nightmares? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Frequently Asked Questions About Preventing Nightmares

Is There a Permanent Way to Stop Nightmares?

No, there isn't a permanent way that's guaranteed to stop nightmares because they are caused by varying factors, such as stress, trauma or underlying health issues.


You can reduce the severity and frequency of bad dreams by making lifestyle changes, managing stress, and trying different therapies, such as CBT and image rehearsal therapy. Consult a healthcare professional if you are experiencing frequent nightmares that disrupt sleep and your daily life.

How Can I Wake Myself Up From a Nightmare?

You can wake yourself up from a nightmare only if you recognize that you are dreaming, known as lucid dreaming. Focus on your breathing to help you transition to wakefulness. Moving your fingers and toes can also help you wake up from a nightmare. Opening your eyes, if able, and focusing on something in your bedroom can help you return to reality and wake up.

Can Lucid Dreaming Help Me Stop Nightmares?

Yes, in some cases, lucid dreaming can help you stop nightmares. Lucid dreaming can reduce the severity of nightmares by helping you identify that you are dreaming, and possibly alter the course of your nightmare into something less distressing and potentially even positive. However, keep in mind that lucid dreaming comes with risks, such as dissociation from reality, mental health issues, more frightening nightmares and further sleep disruption.

Sources:  

(1) "Drug-induced nightmares.” Sage Journals, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9972389/. Accessed 02 January 2026.


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