What imagery rehearsal is, and why it helps

Imagery rehearsal is a way of changing a nightmare while you are awake, so that the dream has somewhere else to go. It sounds almost too simple. It is also the treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder.^[1]

Where it comes from

The method was developed and tested by sleep researchers in the 1990s. A landmark randomised trial, published in JAMA in 2001, studied people who had survived sexual assault and lived with chronic nightmares. Those who learned imagery rehearsal had markedly fewer nightmares and slept better than those on a waiting list.^[2] Many studies since have tested it with veterans, with people who have nightmares without trauma, and in groups, in person and online. Clinical guidance has listed it as a first choice since 2010, and the 2018 position paper recommended it again.^{[4, 1]}

How it works, step by step

1. Choose one nightmare. If you have several, start with a milder one. It is easier to learn the method on a dream that does not overwhelm you.
2. Find where it turns. You don’t need to write out or relive the whole nightmare. Just mark the moment where it starts to go wrong.
3. Change it, any way you like. There is no correct version. People give the dream a new ending, bring in someone who helps, move to a safe place, give themselves a power, or make the threat absurd.
4. Rehearse the new version. Once a day, while awake, read it once, then close your eyes and imagine it in detail for about ten minutes. What do you see? What can you hear or smell?
5. Keep going, then check in. After a week or two, notice whether the nightmare comes less often or feels less strong. Then choose the next one.

The thing behind me clears its throat. It is a goose in a cardigan, asking if I know the way to the kitchen.

A silly ending is allowed. So is a tender one. What matters is that the new version is yours, specific, and rehearsed.

Why might it work?

Researchers are still studying exactly why. One idea is that a recurring nightmare behaves like a well-worn script, and rehearsing a different version while awake offers the dreaming brain an alternative. Another is that it changes how people relate to their nightmares: from something that happens to them, to something they can shape. Both may be true. What is well established is that, for many people, it reduces how often nightmares come and how distressing they feel.

An interesting new twist

In a 2022 study in Current Biology, everyone practised imagery rehearsal, and everyone heard a soft sound during REM sleep at home. For one group, that sound had been paired with their rewritten ending while they practised. That group’s nightmares fell faster.^[3] It was a small study that used an EEG headband, so it is early, but it is the kind of research that keeps the method moving. We wrote about it in more detail in a sound that helps a new ending stick.

When it is not enough on its own

If your nightmares are linked to a traumatic event, or come with flashbacks, fear of sleep, or difficulty getting through the day, please see a professional. Trauma-focused therapies are recommended for nightmares related to PTSD, and imagery rehearsal can be part of that work with a therapist beside you.^[1] If nightmares come with thoughts of harming yourself, please reach out to a crisis line today.

How Baku packages it

The method is simple; doing it consistently is the hard part. Baku’s Rewrite studio walks you through choosing a dream, tapping the turning point and writing the new ending (the Guide only nudges; your words stay your words). Then it schedules seven days of rehearsal, reminds you at a time you choose, and checks in afterwards. Your first rewrite is free.