A recent study proposes that playing specific sounds into our ears via a wireless headband could prevent nightmares.
Experiments have shown that playing the sound of a piano during sleep reduces the chance of traumatic and frightening dreams for those who suffer from persistent nightmares.
Importantly, the piano music was associated with good daytime thoughts among awake patients.
The patients’ nightmares lessened considerably and their good dreams grew over time after getting this novel treatment.
Experts from the University of Geneva conducted the study, which was published today in the journal Current Biology.
The author of the study, Lampros Perogamvros of the Sleep Laboratory of the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva, stated, “There is a connection between the types of emotions experienced in dreams and our emotional health.
Based on this discovery, we conceived the notion that we could assist people by controlling their emotions in their dreams.
In this study, it is demonstrated that the number of emotionally intense and negatively charged nightmares can be reduced in individuals suffering from night terrors.
Nightmares are clinically relevant when they occur regularly (more than once per week) and produce daytime weariness, mood changes, and worry.
Prior research indicates that up to 4% of adults experience clinically relevant levels of nightmares.
One contemporary therapy, known as imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), instructs patients to practice positive versions of their most frequent nightmares.
IRT instructs dreamers to rewrite a negative dream scenario with a happier conclusion and to practice it throughout the day.
Although IRT has demonstrated some efficacy, certain individuals do not respond to this treatment; therefore, the team decided to modify IRT.
Perogamvros and his colleagues gathered 36 IRT-receiving patients to determine if sound exposure during sleep could improve success.
Half of the group received IRT as usual, while the other half was compelled to try this new sound-based kind of therapy.
Sophie Schwartz, the author of the study, stated, “We invited patients to envisage positive alternatives to their dreams.”
‘However, one of the two patient groups performed this activity while a sound – a major piano chord – was played every ten seconds.
The objective was to correlate this sound with the envisioned good future.
Thus, when the sound was played again, but this time during sleep, it was more likely to reawaken a favorable recollection.
For two weeks, participants in the second group were required to wear a headband capable of transmitting sound during REM sleep.
REM is a type of sleep that occurs intermittently throughout the night and is marked by rapid eye movement. It is during REM sleep that nightmares typically occur.
The frequency of nightmares dropped much more in the group where the optimistic scenario was associated with the sound after the experiment.
The researchers discovered that both groups reported a drop in nightmares each week.
Those who underwent the combo therapy, however, reported fewer nightmares immediately following the intervention and three months later, as well as an increase in good dreams.
This new combined therapy, according to the researchers, needs to be tested on a bigger scale and with diverse populations to determine its efficacy.
Perogamvros stated, “While the outcomes of the therapeutic coupling will need to be duplicated before this method can be widely adopted, all indications indicate that it is a highly successful novel treatment for the nightmare disorder.”
The next step for us will be to test this strategy on post-traumatic stress disorder-related nightmares.
Insomnia and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress, such as flashbacks and anxiety, may be treatable in the future thanks to these findings.
