Nightmares are dreams accompanied by negative emotions, such as anxiety or fear, that wake you up. Nightmares are common in children but can occur at any age.
Nightmares are not only experienced by children but are also very prevalent among adults. Nearly 70% of adults report having nightmares, with 30% stating that these frightening dreams visit them at least once a month.
Understanding Nightmares
According to the Huffington Post, nightmares typically occur during the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase and create a very realistic sensation, sometimes leading the dreamer to be haunted for a long time. Most people occasionally experience nightmares, but only about 6% of adults experience them regularly.
“Nightmares generally evoke more intense emotions than bad dreams. A common way to distinguish between the two is that a nightmare will wake the dreamer up due to the vividness of the frightening imagery or the overwhelming emotional intensity,” said Zadra Antonio, a psychologist studying sleep at the University of Montreal, Canada.
Why do we dream of nightmares?
Nightmares are something no one wishes for while sleeping, but why do we still encounter unpleasant scenarios like apocalypses, ghost encounters, or being chased in our dreams? Swiss and American scientists conducted an experiment to find the most accurate answers to this question.
According to their findings, nightmares can be seen as a form of training for the nervous system, helping individuals gain “experience” in dealing with negative emotions in real life. The research results indicated that the emotions we feel in dreams help people anticipate emotional pressures and prepare for potential future upheavals.
Scientists used electroencephalograms to study the activity of different parts of the brain during sleep. Eighteen volunteers were awakened multiple times throughout the night and asked general questions about the dreams they experienced and whether they were nightmares.
By analyzing brain activity, researchers identified two areas of the brain responsible for nightmares: the insula and the cingulate cortex. Both areas are activated when individuals feel anxious or fearful in real life.
The insula is responsible for identifying various emotions and automatically activates when a person feels anxious. The cingulate cortex prepares appropriate responses to handle situations where individuals feel threatened and controls human behavior when in danger. Interestingly, in another study, scientists found that people who frequently experience nightmares tend to have a more pleasant reaction to negative situations in real life.
Nightmares are a way for the brain to release anxiety
Frequent nightmares can be a sign of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other mental health issues. However, most cases are not related to mental illness, and in fact, nightmares can be beneficial for you.
We all occasionally experience nightmares. (Photo: Huffington Post).
A video titled “The Positive Side of Bad Dreams” published in the New York magazine explains that nightmares can be a way for us to process and let go of anxieties in daily life.
The mind accomplishes this by turning vague fears and worries from real life into a specific story in the dream. This story then becomes part of memory, helping the brain organize and process information more easily, alleviating distressing emotions.
In addition to fear, nightmares can also evoke many other negative emotions such as: helplessness, despair, guilt, and anger. This allows the mind to process similar emotions in real life.
Themes of Nightmares
In a study published in the journal Sleep in 2014, Antonio and his colleagues at the University of Montreal collected data from nearly 10,000 dreams from 331 adults living in Canada.
Through this research, scientists identified common themes present in people’s nightmares, and it is likely that we have encountered at least one of them. Most nightmare themes often relate to insects and bugs, falling, being chased, the death of family members or friends, personal conflicts and violence, feeling the “presence of evil,” and health-related issues.
Decoding the meaning of nightmares
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychologist, viewed dreams as a doorway to the human subconscious and was fascinated by dream interpretation. Freud believed that every dream carries information about desires and fears lying in the subconscious. However, subsequent studies failed to prove that themes and imagery in dreams have universal meanings, and psychologists have abandoned the practice of dream interpretation.
“This does not mean that nightmares lack meaning. They certainly carry some metaphorical significance, but the way they manifest varies greatly from person to person,” Antonio said.
Dreaming trends of men and women
Dreams about natural disasters or asteroids destroying life on Earth are not uncommon. According to research by scientists at the University of Montreal, natural disasters are a common theme in nightmares.
Results show that 9.4% of men often dream about disasters, while only 4.7% of women dream about this theme. A previous study also found that men tend to dream about war and terrorism more frequently, while women’s nightmares often relate to conflicts and personal disputes.
Men tend to dream more about war and terrorism than women. (Illustrative image: Oocities).
“Intense arguments with family, friends, or colleagues are more common in women’s nightmares,” Antonio said.
Nightmares related to sleep disorders
The biggest issue with experiencing nightmares is their impact on sleep quality, causing grogginess the next day. In rare cases, this condition can become more severe.
When nightmares occur frequently and severely in a person’s dreams, they may develop nightmare disorder. This is a form of sleep disorder (parasomnias), related to unpleasant experiences when falling asleep, during sleep, or upon waking.
Individuals with parasomnias may experience sleep terrors, causing them to wake up, cry, or attempt to escape the room while still asleep. They may also encounter sleep hallucinations, a disorder related to nightmares, which occur when a person experiences vivid, intense imagery while asleep or waking, leading to feelings of fear or terror.
Facts About Nightmares
- 1. Among the general population, 1 in 20 people experiences a nightmare each week. This rate is significantly higher for those with mental health disorders. For instance, ¾ of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and half of those with borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience nightmares.
- 2. Nightmares often occur after a traumatic event in life – which can lead to PTSD – but initial symptoms can arise after any life stressors.
- 3. Increasing levels of anxiety, hallucinations, and longer sleep durations have been closely linked to the occurrence of nightmares. This effect persists even after mental health conditions such as negative influences, PTSD, and life stresses have been managed.
- 4. Anxiety appears to be the most accurate predictor of nightmares. Moreover, individuals who are more anxious tend to have worse nightmares. This can further increase stress as it signals the body about distress, worries, and exhaustion.
- 5. The reason individuals who sleep more tend to have more nightmares is that they spend longer in REM sleep.
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