The inner life
Imagery Rehearsal
Direct answer
Imagery Rehearsal: Imagery rehearsal is a method used by sleep clinicians for repeated nightmares, in which the dreamer writes down the nightmare, changes it, and pictures the new version while awake.
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At a glance
- Also called
- nightmare rescripting, rewriting a nightmare, irt for nightmares
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Active Imagination, Continuity Hypothesis, Dream Interpretation, Lucid Dreaming
Imagery rehearsal is a method used by sleep clinicians for repeated nightmares, in which the dreamer writes down the nightmare, changes it, and pictures the new version while awake.
A plain educational schematic; it does not diagnose a condition or replace professional care.
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What is imagery rehearsal?
Imagery rehearsal has three steps. The person writes out a nightmare they have often. They change it in any way they like: the ending, a detail, the whole course of it. Then, for a few minutes each day, they picture the new dream, not the old one.
The method does not ask what the nightmare means, and the new version need not be a happy one. Its developers describe frequent nightmares as partly a learned habit of the sleeping mind that a rehearsed alternative can displace. It is taught by therapists in a few sessions, and it is the best studied approach to chronic nightmares.
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What sets Imagery Rehearsal apart
The method is notable for what it leaves out. The nightmare is not analysed, the event behind it is not retold, and the sleeper does nothing at night. All the work is a few minutes of waking imagination. Krakow's instruction is deliberately loose, change the dream any way you wish, and people often alter something small. The approach treats a long-running nightmare as a habit that has outlived its cause, and in trials the improvement held at follow-up months later.
- Three steps: write the nightmare, change it, picture the new version daily
- Developers: Barry Krakow and colleagues, University of New Mexico, 1990s
- Forerunner: Isaac Marks, rehearsal relief of a nightmare, 1978
- Main trial: JAMA, 2001: 168 women, fewer nightmares and better sleep
- Daily time: a few minutes, awake, in daylight
Often mistaken for something else: Dream interpretation asks what a nightmare means; imagery rehearsal sets meaning aside and practises a different dream.
The story behind Imagery Rehearsal
The psychiatrist Isaac Marks described rehearsing a nightmare to relieve it in 1978. Barry Krakow and colleagues at the University of New Mexico developed the present form in the 1990s. In 2001 they reported in JAMA a controlled trial with 168 women who had survived sexual assault, in which those taught the method had fewer nightmares and slept better. Sleep medicine guidelines have since recommended it.
Why Imagery Rehearsal matters
Imagery Rehearsal shows that a nightmare is not fixed, and it is the point at which reading dreams for meaning hands over to a tested clinical method.
How to read Imagery Rehearsal
The word is used for the clinic method. The house mentions it so a reader with frequent nightmares knows what to ask a doctor or therapist about.
Imagery Rehearsal in practice: an example
A reader chased nightly through a car park might rewrite the dream so that they stop, turn and find a neighbour's dog, and picture that each afternoon.
Where readings of Imagery Rehearsal go wrong
Nightmares that replay a real event are worked on with a trained therapist, not alone. Nightly nightmares are a reason to see a doctor.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- imagery rehearsal therapy, nightmare rescripting, rewriting a nightmare, irt for nightmares
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is imagery rehearsal?
It is a method for repeated nightmares: write the dream down, change it however you wish, and spend a few minutes a day imagining the changed version.
Does imagery rehearsal work for nightmares?
Controlled trials, including one published in JAMA in 2001, found fewer nightmares and better sleep in people taught the method. It is recommended in sleep medicine guidelines.
Do I have to give the nightmare a happy ending?
No. The instruction is to change the dream in any way that feels right. Many people alter a small detail early in the dream, and that is enough.
