Suffering PTSD-Induced Nightmares? Try These Tips to Soothe & Support Better Sleep

What happens when you try to relax or sleep well? Are you kept awake by memories or parts of memories? Has it been ages since you slept for hours at a time or were able to simply fall asleep at all? Are you terrorized by images and sensations that make sleeping something you dread?

If you are like many people with PTSD, you know that sleep disruption comes with the territory. 

Unfortunately, exhaustion and PTSD are often partners. Thus, the life you want may feel lost in the fatigue and depleted mental energy that results. Worse, PTSD nightmares can add to your sleep troubles, adding a measure of terror or discomfort that feels difficult to escape.

To find relief, it’s important to understand what’s happening and what to do next.

PTSD Counseling NYC: Understanding PTSD Nightmares & How They Affect You

One of the primary symptoms of PTSD is re-experiencing the trauma you endured. Though this can happen in the form of intrusive thoughts and flashbacks during the day, the night often offers no reprieve. Nighttime does offer a quiet, undistracted focus on disturbing memories that can manifest as distressing dreams or nightmares. 

Over time, the negative effects of PTSD can rob you of more than rest. If your trauma remains unresolved, your health and ability to function may be further compromised. Without proper sleep, PTSD can significantly strain your waking hours too. Without care, the pile-up of other symptoms, relationship problems, and career responsibilities can start to feel impossible. 

PTSD Counseling NYC: You Don’t Have to Keep Suffering

Trauma nightmare sufferers need help to cope. It’s okay to reach out for that help. There is no shame in taking action before depression and anxiety become unmanageable or damaging coping methods get in your way. 

Mental health professionals can help stop a frightening, demoralizing slide toward further distress. Your sleepless nights and their toll on your life don’t have to persist, untreated. Collaborating together, there are some things you can do now to start finding rest and relief.

PTSD Counseling NYC: PTSD-Induced Nightmares? 5 Strategies to Support Better Sleep

  1. Pay Attention to Your Body. 

Consider the benefits of body-centered self-care before the nightmares arrive. Massage, progressive relaxation, and yoga can make it feel safer to relax and even remember difficult experiences. Allowing your body to release tension intentionally may help you feel more in control and less at the mercy of physical and emotional memories linked to the trauma. The goal is to allow stretches, a warm bath, or soothing physical touch to help you feel empowered before you lay your head on your pillow.

  1. Schedule a Check-up with Your Physician or a Sleep Specialist.

Recent studies reveal that trauma nightmares might be relieved by considering a person’s sleep disorders. For example, in research published by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, PTSD is strongly connected to sleep apnea. 

Sleep apnea happens when a person’s airways are restricted causing the brain to jolt the body awake to restart breathing. This, of course, disrupts deeper, REM (dream) sleep. When restricted oxygen and the normal ability of the body and brain to soothe themselves are hampered, it is thought that nightmares occur or worsen. 

  1. Journal Your Dreamed Experiences and Recurring Themes. 

It’s often helpful to consider the nightmares themselves. What’s happening? Who is with you? Are there recurring people, locations, and items? 

Examine which feelings continually come up. You may find that you understand key emotional issues a bit better. This journal is also a helpful tool in therapy. Exploring your thoughts and emotions this way may help alleviate your nightmares markedly.

  1. Ask About Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

For many sufferers, nightmares linked to PTSD are accompanied by heightened anxiety and even panic attacks. A specific counseling method called cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to significantly help reduce the frequency and intensity of PTSD-related nightmares. 

What’s CBT exactly? It is a treatment designed to help you to understand and shift your thinking regarding your traumatic experience and your automatic response to it. Essentially, CBT helps you train your mind to replace negative, unhelpful thoughts with more accurate, less disturbing thinking. Coping with anger, guilt, and fear productively becomes more possible as your therapist helps you to process the trauma. Self-blame, shame, and inaccurate memories have less power to distress you and affect your sleep.

  1. Find Out More About Eye Movement Desensitization and Restructuring. 

The technique, also known as EMDR, employs the very same natural eye movements we use when we sleep. The rapid eye movements that are part of the dream state help us process the previous day’s memories. The idea of this treatment is that moving the eyes while remembering detailed traumatic memories can help process and ease the impact of those thoughts or impressions. With a therapist’s help, you may find the nightmares and suffering attached to your trauma are greatly relieved. 

Resolving trauma in therapy helps provide healthier tools to cope. Are you ready to deal with your trauma and move forward?

PTSD Counseling NYC: Choose Trauma-informed Therapy for Lasting Change

It’s crucial to work with a qualified, empathetic therapist. Trauma-informed care with a trained clinician, who understands specific treatment methods designed to address PTSD symptoms, can make recovery more productive than trying to go it alone. 

Seek support from a counselor who will pinpoint your strengths and needs. They can select which treatment approach will work best to reduce the effects of PTSD on your life and relationships.

The Relationship Suite

We’re a group of skilled therapists, ready when you are. We have the experience to support trauma sufferers. Please read more about PTSD therapy and contact us for support soon. You can feel better and live well.

To learn more about our Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment services, click here. 

If you’re struggling, call 917-273-8836 or Contact us for a complimentary consultation to learn more about counseling in NYC and how we can help you.

We are a group of skilled therapists specializing in individual and couples counseling. Since Covid, we have been working with couples via Online Counseling in New York, and New York City including Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester, Long Island, Manhasset, Roslyn, Port Washington, South Hampton, East Hampton, and Montauk. To schedule a complimentary consultation, click HERE.

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