No one likes being jolted awake from a deep sleep, especially when what riled you up was an assailant, a snake in the bed, or being engulfed by flames. Bad dreams–or worse, nightmares–aren’t just annoying; when reoccurring, they can disrupt a good night’s sleep, and sometimes, life.  

A nightmare is a dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear and/or horror. The dream may contain situation(s) of danger, discomfort, or psychological or physical terror. Sufferers are usually awoken in a state of distress, and may be unable to return to sleep for a prolonged period of time. The technique, used while patients are awake, is called scripting or dream mastery and is part of imagery rehearsal therapy, which Dr. Krakow helped develop. 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 Dr. Krakow, founder of the P.T.S.D. Sleep Clinic at the Maimonides Sleep Arts and Sciences center here and a leading researcher of nightmares.The therapy is being used to treat a growing number of nightmare sufferers. In recent years, nightmares have increasingly been viewed as a distinct disorder, and researchers have produced a growing body of empirical evidence that this kind of cognitive therapy can help reduce their frequency and intensity, or even eliminate them.

The treatments are controversial. Some therapists, particularly Jungian analysts, take issue with changing nightmares’ content, arguing that dreams send crucial messages to the waking mind. Nightmares are important because they “bring up issues in bold print,” said Jane White-Lewis, a psychologist in Guilford, Conn., who has taught about dreams at the Carl Jung Institute in New York. From 4 to 8 percent of adults report experiencing nightmares, perhaps as often as once per week or more, according to sleep researchers But the rate is as high as 90 percent among groups like combat veterans and rape victims.

The results of a randomized controlled trial were published in a 2001 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Of the subjects, 95 percent had moderate to severe P.T.S.D., 97 percent had experienced rape or other sexual assault, 77 percent reported life-threatening sexual assault and 58 percent reported repeated exposure to sexual abuse in childhood.

The treatment group, 88 women, participated in three sessions of imagery rehearsal therapy, while the control group, 80 women, was on a waiting list and continued with whatever treatment they had been undergoing. Of the 114 that completed follow-up at three or at three and six months, those in the treatment group had “significantly” reduced the nights per week with nightmares and the number of nightmares per week, the paper said. The control group showed small, “nonsignificant” improvement on the same measures. And symptoms of post-traumatic stress decreased in 65 percent of the treatment group, while they either remained unchanged or worsened in the control group, according to the findings.

So next time you have a nightmare just think of a happy thought. Changes all the images in the dream and you should be fine for the rest of the night. But until then don’t let the boogie man get you.

A new fad has come in: Energy drinks mixed with alcohol. What are the effects of a depressant and a stimulus combined, on the body? The problem arises from consuming a stimulant alongside an intoxicant, which, clinical studies show, can reduce the perception of being drunk but not the impairment. 

 Red bull is a heavily caffeinated energy drink spiked with additional stimulants, and when mixed with vodka or other liquor, it can diminish the awareness of drowsiness, feelings of un-coordination and intoxication. However, studies show the added caffeine only makes you think you are more in control. A new breed of high caffeine and high alcohol drinks are now on the market, like Joose and Four Loko, with double the amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee, and double the amount of alcohol as a beer. The drinks are currently being outlawed in Europe for kids under 12. There is no legal age limit to purchasing energy drinks, and about 30 percen of 12- to 17-year-olds admit to regular use.

Consuming these drinks with alcohol was now emerging as a cause of “elevated involvement in night-time risk-taking behavior”, according to the study which is published in the journal of Addictive Behaviors. The urban myth that coffee sobers people up does create a lot of problems. People drink more thinking they can just have coffee later. They are also more likely to drink right up until it’s time to leave because of that belief. The bottom line is that coffee targets one part of drunkenness - drowsiness. It does nothing for anything else. Very simply, it does nothing to remove alcohol from your blood, and that’s the only real way at this point to sober up.

 

Inactivity, snacking, and always sitting may all be risk factors of watchin g television. Watching TV may be unhealthier than other sedentary activities, says Peter Katzmarzyk, PhD, an exercise scientist at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, La.

Studies show that television leads to an increase in the consumption of energy-dense, snack-type foods,” he says. “It’s a stimulus for poor dietary behavior, whereas some of the other types of sedentary behavior are less likely to stimulate poor snacking behaviors.” And because it burns so few calories—about the same as sleeping, hour for hour—watching TV tends to reduce a person’s overall energy output.

Technology has made people more sedentary in general. While there are still plenty of occupations that require people to be on their feet all day, more and more of us sit at desks, glued to computer screens. Instead of walking down the hall to speak with co-workers, we email them. 

 

  

Doctors recommend that people with desk jobs get up every so often and just stretch and walk around. Or prop up your monitor and stand while your talking on the phone.

Exercise is important for health, but avoiding prolonged periods of sitting is nearly as important. Get up every so often, go for a walk or do some kind of activity where you are standing and moving.