Archive for the ‘Nightmares’ Category
In wildest dreams, a shot at reshaping nightmares | NWAonline
September 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: Her car is racing at a terrifying speed through the streets of a large city, and something gruesome, something with giant eyeballs, is chasing her, closing in fast. It was a dream, of course, and after Emily Gurule, a 50-year-old high school teacher, related it to Dr. Barry Krakow, he did not ask her to unpack its symbolism. He simply told her to think of a new one. “In your mind, with thinking and picturing, take a few minutes, close your eyes, and I want you to change the dream any way you wish,” said Krakow, founder of the PTSD Sleep Clinic at the Maimonides Sleep Arts and Sciences center in Albuquerque and a leading researcher of nightmares. And so …
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Should We Manipulate Our Dreams? – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com
Nightmares have long terrified and mystified us, and historically they have been interpreted as omens, the work of demons, or sources of self-knowledge. In recent years, more therapists are using what is known as “scripting or dream mastery,” a technique that a doctor at the P.T.S.D. Sleep Clinic at the Maimonides Sleep Arts and Sciences center helped develop. Patients with severe sleeping problems can learn to control their dreams and replace unwelcome or terrifying images with ones that are pleasant or harmless.
Comments on: New York Times – Following a Script to Escape a Nightmare
Forty-eight comments were posted on the recent New York Times article on treatment of chronic nightmares. Reading them was illuminating and encouraging, because the overwhelming majority of writers showed a great deal of common sense in their appreciation for the use of imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT). Among this group, there were numerous stories of those who had received similar instructions from a parent or friend who advised them to “change” something about their nightmare scenarios. In other words, these people or their children had lived through a process of suffering from nightmares and then successfully eradicated them through an instruction that afforded them a measure of influence over the problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Using Yoga to Treat Soldiers with PTSD
Heather Hauswirth KUAM
Guam – In 1969 former U.S. Army sergeant Frances H. Wolford received a Purple Heart for his bravery. He was wounded in combat in Vietnam, and to this day he has flashbacks. “I was wounded in the forehead. That’s why I don’t feel like enjoying Christmas,” he described.
The holidays are especially hard for Wolford, who has yet to be treated for his condition, but about 2,500 veterans receive treatment at the Guam Vets Center annually. 65% of them have undergone treatment specifically for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Local Guam yoga therapist Debbie Purcell says she uses yoga as a form of therapy to treat patients with PTSD, and that she’s had great success with vets by getting them to focus on the breath.
KPBS San Diego: Dr. Barry Krakow Discusses Nightmares
by Angela Carone, Maureen Cavanaugh of KPBS
When Do Nightmares Become A Sleep Disorder?
One in 20 adults in the US complain of disturbing dreams, and more than twice that many children and adolescents also experience frequent nightmares, yet few chronic nightmare sufferers imagine that it is a treatable problem. We’ll talk about nightmares with leading sleep disorder specialist Dr. Barry Krakow.
See Dr. Krakow's videos at sleeptreatment.com with the latest news and personal testimonials about his book.
