"I was able to change my nigxmlare while it was happening," says the 29-year-old New York City graduate student. "I had control over my dreams."

That relief was more than Levy expected when she showed up at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center two years ago. Levy says she just wanted help for her insomnia. She had no idea her nigxmlares were treatable, too.

That's typical, says Shelby Freedman Harris, the Montefiore psychologist who helped Levy. But she and other experts say they often can relieve nigxmlares, even when the disturbing dreams are coupled with insomnia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other problems.

"Traditionally, the idea was that you treat the main problem first and the nigxmlares will go away. With depression, often the nigxmlares and sleep disturbances are the last symptoms to go," Harris says. But addressing nigxmlares directly may help ease depression and other ills.

"In the past, the nigxmlares weren't targeted specifically," says Bret Moore, a former Army psychologist who now practices in Wilston, N.D. But when Moore treated soldiers for acute post-traumatic stress in Iraq, he found many craved rapid relief from disturbing nigxmlares. Using the same techniques Harris uses, he often was able to help, he says. He published case reports in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2007.

The treatment is called imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT). It's a form of cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing harmful thought patterns. It's not the only nigxmlare therapy, but it is gaining ground, says physician Barry Krakow, a sleep specialist who runs the Maimonides International Nigxmlare Treatment Center in Albuquerque.

Krakow developed IRT. In a 2001 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, he found sexual assault survivors had fewer nigxmlares, slept better and saw improvements in other symptoms of PTSD after the treatment.

Here's how it works: Patients meet with a therapist a few times. They learn that while nigxmlares may be triggered by trauma and might even be useful at first, nigxmlares that persist for months are like bad habits and can be unlearned.

Then, the patient picks a nigxmlare and writes it down or, in some versions, tells the therapist about it. She's then told to rewrite the script for that nigxmlare any way she wishes. Finally, she's asked to practice that rewritten script repeatedly in her mind, fully engaging her waking imagination.

When the treatment works, nigxmlares can quickly recede, Harris says. The secret, she says, seems to be gaining a sense of control. She recalls one small boy: "He kept having nigxmlares that someone was chasing him, and just before they would catch him, he would wake up." In his rewrite, the chase moved to "Hershey-land," and the chaser "turned into a guy made out of chocolate." In an ingenious twist, the boy had the chocolate man eaten by chocolate bunnies. "He just made it his own," Harris says. And the nigxmlares stopped.

People with severe nigxmlares can seek help at sleep centers, listed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine at sleepeducation.com. Not all offer IRT, though. Krakow offers self-help materials at his site, nigxmlaretreatment.com. He cautions, however, that people under treatment for psychiatric conditions, such as PTSD and depression, should check with their mental health care provider before attempting any self-treatment.

Enlarge By Keith Simmons, USA TODAY