EFT, Dreams & Nightmares

You can approach bad dreams in a number of different ways.

The first one may be to tap before going to sleep and express a desire to sleep soundly and well - "I desire to sleep deeply and I deeply and profoundly accept myself". As you do this, objections may come up in your mind, or even feelings of dread or disbelief. You can then tap on these "Even though I am afraid I will have a nightmare ." or, "Even though there's something bothering me in my sleep ."

Probably the most ecological way to deal with recurrent bad dreams that follow a theme is to tap for the dream experiences and feelings as though they were "real" memories: "Even though there is this monster chasing me, ." - "Even though I am so afraid of the monster ." - "Even though I know the monster is going to kill me ."

Using this approach, the problems may be cleared without having to deal with the underlying issue in consciousness at all, which can be helpful if the subject matter the dreams relate to is particularly distressing or results from repressed memories of traumatic events.

For those who need to know the reasons for the nightmares or bad dreams, tapping for insights using statements such as, "Even though I don't know what the monster represents ." . If you use this approach, don't be disappointed if you don't realise it right away in the course of the round or immediately afterwards. Sometimes the realisation or mental connection comes the next day, the day after that, or even in a further dream as you sleep. Using the "I don't know" form of opening statement will eventually get you there; sometimes, there's some other blockage that needs to be resolved first, so be on the lookout for other problems that spring to mind even if they seem completely unrelated. Unrelated thoughts and ideas are often "pre-memories" that lead to what you are trying to discover.

If you already know what events have caused the nightmares, or you have found a correlation in time to the onset of the nightmares and an obvious candidate for a reason, such as bereavement, moving house, or a traumatic experience or accident of any kind, tapping for the underlying cause will generally resolve the need to have the nightmares as well.

Waking in the night or the next morning with negative feelings that are the residue of the bad dreams can give an opportunity to work with the dominant emotion that is present, whether this may be fear, dread, anxiety, panic, desperation, pain or whatever else you can sense within you. Tapping on the particular feeling whilst it is still present and strong in your mind may also relieve the root causes for the bad dreams.

For small children or others that won't/can't tap for themselves, proxy tapping any of the approaches above can be very helpful indeed. I know of three people who have successfully "cured" their children of bad dreams using the proxy tapping approach; only one of them knew the underlying cause and tapped for that, the other two used simple opening statements such as, "Even though Mandy has bad dreams, I deeply and profoundly love and accept Mandy."

Lucid Dreaming, Dream Recall & "Lovely" Dreams

Just as nightmares in the night make the next day much harder to deal with, wonderful dreams make the next day sparkling and bright.

Try tapping a round or two expressing a desire to experience a particularly wonderful dream that will let you contact resources of happiness, creativity, love and excitement is well worth a try even if you sleep very well already.

Dream recall and lucid dreaming can be greatly aided by tapping on any existing objections to such an endeavour, be it of the "Even though I don't know how to improve my lucid dreaming/dream recall skills ." variety, or by unblocking any existing limiting beliefs such as "Even though I can't recall my dreams easily." - "I'm afraid what I might learn about myself if I recalled my dreams ." - "Only special people can learn lucid dreaming ." or whatever might be your dominant limiting thoughts on the subject.

Finally on the subject of dreams, here's a case story:

The Fly Master

A lady came to see me because she had been suffering from a recurrent nightmare for the past five years. A dark and very frightening apparition which was not human would dispatch swarms of big black flies towards her which would try and get into her brain through her ears. In the dreams, she would run and try desperately to defend herself from the flies but some would eventually get through and enter her ears at which point she would awake screaming and bathed in sweat.

She had never told anyone about this because she was afraid they would think she was crazy, and as she related the dream she began to cry, shake and was obviously very upset indeed.

She tapped a first round with the set up, "Even though I am petrified of the Fly Master" and calmed significantly, yawned and yawned again. Another round of tapping which centred on her feelings of helplessness produced more yawning and she was now very relaxed and calm.

It then occurred to her spontaneously that this might be related to a boyfriend she had lived with up until five years ago, who was interested in black occult, and who had threatened on more than one occasion that he would find ways to "get her" and that there would be nowhere to hide. Following this insight, she tapped for, "Even though I don't believe I can protect myself from psychic attacks" until she felt that she could trust her unconscious mind to protect her perfectly well.

The nightmares stopped and have not returned; if her fears were real or imagined was, as usual, of no importance. The important thing was that the tapping set her free from what might be called a "post-hypnotic suggestion" by the ex-boyfriend that had haunted her since she had dared to leave him.

Silvia Hartmann, December 1999

Advanced Training in Energy EFT