London, July 30 - Dream therapy could show a way out of recurring nightmares, according to a new study.

The previously discredited approach is drawing the interest of clinicians, because it can treat nightmares by training the victims to dream lucidly, so they can consciously wake up.

Lucid dreaming -- when you are aware you are dreaming -- is a state between sleeping and being awake. It creates distinct patterns of electrical activity in the brain similar to the patterns made by psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia.

The links between lucid dreaming and psychotic conditions offers potential for new therapeutic routes based on how healthy dreaming differs from unstable mental states.

Unstable states comprise neurological and psychiatric disorders, according to the findings of a European Science Foundation (ESF) workshop.

New data affirms the connection by showing that while dreaming lucidly, the brain is in a dissociated state, according to Ursula Voss from the University of Frankfurt.