What is the best thing to do when you wake up from a nightmare?

Come to reality that it's not real and it will never happen. Drink some water and take some deep breaths. Heck, listen to some music if you need to.

Try watching TV or use your phone to help you forget the nightmare, and when you feel tired again go back to sleep and think about good things.

I never have gone back to the same nightmare after waking up. But I do have trouble going back to sleep because I keep thinking about it.

I have found, that if you can wake up enough to roll over in a new position, that will at times be enough to keep from sinking back into the same nightmare.

You are the architect of your dreams. Any stimulation during the day and your mind will interpret it's meaning and run with it. Most dreams live for a few minutes but make us feel it lasted all night.

Read into it anything you want only don't let it run your life.

Relieve yourself, have a smoke if you are a smoker and have a sit and think for a few minutes and then follow my advice on the question I have already answered on this topic

Chetak

When I wake from a bad dream of any sort, I do a visualization exercise. I close my eyes and breathe and go to my "safe place". For me, it's a quiet rolling field with a single willow tree. I immerse myself in the senses of being there. I feel the warm breeze, the sun's warmth breaking though the spaces in the leaves of the tree, I feel the grass between my toes. I smell the flowers that grow in the rolling field.

It relaxes my mind and totally changes the course of where my mind was in the dream I woke from, and it really helps to keep from returning to the bad dream state.

Turn on the lamp and get out of bed ...walk a round , read for a bit or watch television. If it is not too late call a friend.

Never going to sleep again whole night.........

The r too bloody awful......

I get up and have a drink and sit there for 10 mins or so before going back to bed