Waking up in the middle of the night sweating and catching up breath? You've probably experienced a bad dream or worse, a nightmare. According to experts, 5 to 6 percent of the human population reported on experiencing nightmares. Contrasting opinions have risen all over the years about whether having nightmares is a good thing or not.
A previous study shows that having nightmares can be helpful and a healthy psychological encounter. To resolve the conflict and understand more what happens to a person who is experiencing a nightmare, here are some scientifically proven facts about them.
A nightmare is a process by which the mind let go of Anxiety. Experiencing nightmares frequently can be associated with post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychiatric health problems, however most of the time it's uncorrelated with any mental sickness. The New York magazine's Science of Us series launched a video entitled "The Good Side of Bad Dreams", which described how nightmares act as a passage or a way to release a person's daily anxiety or stress. This happens when the mind store a memory of fear and other negative feelings such as worry, anger, despair, helplessness or guilt and make out a story out of it when a person sleeps, thus becoming a dream or a nightmare.
Your nightmares may be similar with others. A research study conducted and released on year 2014 in the Sleep journal exhibited the commonality of the nightmares that most people experience. About 10,000 dreams were gathered from 331 people from Canada. The researchers discovered the common themes that people dream of when having nightmares include insects and vermin, falling, being chased, death of family and friends, interpersonal conflict and violence, feeling an "evil presence" and health-related concerns, which according to one of the researchers, are related to the fears that most people have.
Men usually dream about natural disasters while women dream of relationship trouble. The study conducted by Dr. Zafra Antonio, psychologist and sleep medicine researcher at the University of Montreal and a nightmare specialist and his associates showed that 9.4 percent of men reported on dreaming about catastrophe while only 4.7 percent of women announcing this theme. A previous study also revealed that men more likely dream about wars and terrorism. On the contrary, it is more common on women to dream about experiencing powerful interpersonal struggles.
"Having really severe arguments with family, friends or colleagues is more common in the nightmares of women," Dr. Antonio stated.
Nightmares can be associated with other sleep problems. When a person experience nightmares in a regular basis, he might be undergoing a nightmare disorder. This illness is a kind of sleep disorder that could bring negative effects on a person's sleeping or waking up such as difficulty and discomfort.
Nightmares could be normal to some but specialists advice those who regularly have them to consult help from doctors to have a better sleeping experience.