Why do we have nightmares?
Posted on 11. Mar, 2010 by Iwind in People
Everyone dreams. A person may or may not remember dreaming, but everyone does it. Occasionally, the dream may be a bad one, something that is called a nightmare. The term “nightmare” actually comes from the Middle Ages and refers to the bad dreams sent to us by goblins. The “mare” portion of the word is an old English term, “maere,” meaning incubus or goblin. By the early 19th century, it became a common term to refer to bad dreams as nightmares.
The purpose of dreaming is not completely known. Science is still trying to figure why we dream in the first place. Dr. Sigmund Freud forwarded the theory that dreams are disguised wish fulfillment. Other, more biologically-based studies suggest that the physical functions of the body and brain are the cause for certain brain activities, not the least of which is the function of dreaming. The brain, trying to interpret the electrical impulse activities, may simply be reacting to this stimulus by giving us dreams.
Dreams (and nightmares) are made up of emotions, thoughts and images. Dreams occur during the phase of sleep known as REM, which is an acronym for Rapid Eye Movement. REM cycles tend to get longer as the night progresses, and many people find they have nightmares closer to morning.
So, why do we have nightmares? The answer to that is not completely known, but one theory about dreams is that, when we sleep, we take the events of the day (or even of a longer period, if we are under constant pressure), and try to re-interpret them. In trying to understand and cope with our daily problems, our brains may put on elaborate dramas — mind-shows, if you will — in the hopes of helping us sort through our personal lives.
If this is the case, then nightmares, for this reason, might be a warning that our stress levels are getting too high.
Nightmares appear to be an emotional response to stress, acted out during a person’s sleep phase. This is especially true in children, who face the stress and pressure of learning new things almost constantly. We tend to outgrow them as we get older, which may support the theory that we are working out our stress and fears in our dreams, but adults do still get them. About 50% of adults have occasional nightmares, women more so than men.
There are other reasons why we have nightmares, as well. Taking certain drugs and the withdrawal from certain drugs and alcohol will cause nightmares. We can have nightmares because of traumatic events that have occurred in our lives. War veterans and PTSD sufferers frequently have nightmares, as do some people afflicted with depression and anxiety disorders. It has not been confirmed, but not lack of sleep — and lack of dreaming — may cause nightmares when sleep does finally arrive.
Popularity: 22%
» Nightmares *~ Jagged Ramblings ~*
Nov 3rd, 2010
[...] here for full [...]
katlin
May 8th, 2011
this is gooodd
sgroclkc
Jul 24th, 2011
For a long time, due to the ignorance of physiological knowledge of lightheadedness, dizziness, fainting, heart palpitations, and so on,, psychological illusion in people’s sleep generated by such physical symptoms i.e . the nightmare really has puzzled the psychologists, therefore they put forward a wide range of wrong even absurd views on the nightmares, which both have no scientific basis, and could not be confirmed, even more were notself-consistent.The reasons for the dreams are very simple, viz. they are the reactions of the objective things in theminds. AsGermany’s well-known psychologistWilliam Wundt’s view of “the most common causes of the dreamare indigestion, heart pulsation(palpitations or flustered),difficulity in breathing, aswell as such symptoms.” When palpitation or flustered occurs, people will have two main feelings: one feeling of seeming to be pursuing ; the other is the feeling of heart suspension or heart sinking(For instance,I don’t know if we are talking about the same thing, but my heart does these big jumps as I am drifting offto sleep and they are not the usual feeling as if I am falling feeling) . Therefore, people in sleep accordingly will have the two most common nightmares of being pursued (occasionally hunting other people) and hanging in the air, and falling down.
sgroclkc
Jul 30th, 2011
All nightmares are caused by palpitations.The most common feeling resulting from palpitations are seeming to be bursuing and heart suspension or heart sinking so the most common nightmares has dreamed of being attacked or bursued and falling down or hanging in the air. Women have worse nightmares than men[1] because palpitations are a common symptom in all age groups, more commonly in women than men. Women are more likely than men to experience heart palpitations when suffering from a stroke[2].
[1]http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/story?id=5782394&page=1
[2]http://www.womensheart.org/content/HeartDisease/cardiac_arrhythmias.asp
Rabia
Oct 9th, 2011
i am going to use your great information on my blog i hope you dont mind?
sgroclkc
Oct 28th, 2011
ok
sgroclkc
Oct 30th, 2011
Fearful sleep paralysis is caused by fearful syncope
sgroclkc
Dec 4th, 2011
There are three main types of nightmares(death dreams or being chased dreams ,flying or falling dreams and Incubus), that are caused by three main scary symptom {the scary sensations of palpitation make you feel as if you’re going to die at any moment[1], the scary sinking feeling in heart of palpitation and scary fainting (syncope) }. They are all different in certain ways. All three types of nightmares can lead to a scary heart palpitations-sensations. Scary Incubus or scary fainting (syncope) can lead to scary lightheaded and dizzy , a loss of strength and a loss of consciousness, perspiration, vision problems, difficulty hearing, ringing in your ears, pressure in your chest[2] and death dreams or being chased dreams and flying or falling dreams do not. [1] http://www.anxietyguru.net/how-to-stop-heart-palpitations/ [2] http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Fainting/Pages/Symptoms.aspx
sgroclkc
Dec 9th, 2011
There are three main types of nightmares(death dreams or being chased dreams ,flying dreams or falling dreams and Incubus) that are caused by three main scary symptom {the scary sensations of palpitation make you feel as if you’re going to die at any moment[1], the scary sinking feeling in heart of palpitation and scary fainting (syncope) }. They are all different in certain ways. All three types of nightmares can lead to a scary heart palpitations-sensations. Scary Incubus or scary fainting (syncope) can lead to scary lightheaded and dizzy , a loss of strength and a loss of consciousness, perspiration, vision problems, difficulty hearing, ringing in your ears, pressure in your chest[2] and others do not.
[1]http://www.anxietyguru.net/how-to-stop-heart-palpitations/
[2]http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Fainting/Pages/Symptoms.aspx