Chronic nightmares and disturbing dreams cause sleeplessness (insomnia), or they make your sleep worse if you have been having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Many people with bad dreams and insomnia also suffer posttraumatic stress symptoms.

In 10 years of clinical and research experience at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and then 10 more years through our non-profit, Sleep & Human Health Institute, we learned that people with these problems are often desperate to sleep well again. And, the most useful thing we discovered was that if they could reduce or eliminate their nightmares, they would almost always start sleeping better.

By teaching them simple, self-help, non-drug techniques to directly target their disturbing dreams, we also observed that many patients not only reduced their nightmares and improved their sleep, but they also decreased their stress symptoms. These methods are incorporated into our audio series, "Turning Nightmares Into Dreams." However, some people may wish to receive additional, individual treatment through our center.

Regardless of which treatment pathway you pursue, I believe that chronic nightmare sufferers benefit immeasurably by looking at their problem with disturbing dreams as a sleep disorder. By doing so, important mental and physical health gains can be achieved.