Do Nightmares Have More Negative Emotions Before And After Sleep?

Dr. Ishaad Ebrahim is an MD, MRCPsych, and Neuropsychiatric Specialist in Sleep Disorders at the Constanta Sleep Centre. An MD is any type of medical doctor. An MRCPsych is a “Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.” A neuropsychologist specialist essentially has a scientific aspect and a medical aspect. Dr. Ebrahim believes that almost anyone is capable of having a nightmare during the REM stage of sleep. He said, “If we consider only attack dreams, which are one of the most common nightmare themes, the lifetime prevalence varies from 67% to 90%. Pursuit, a closely related, highly disturbing theme, has a lifetime prevalence of 92% among women and 85% among men.”

They used twenty-eight female and male participants, some with frequent others with less frequent nightmares. All participants were screened for any mental or psychological disorders. In the study, participants would have a nap, complete a task, and fill out questions on the state of their dreams and experiences. The participants would also nap for longer and then be awakened right before they entered into REM sleep. Then the participant would once again answer questions and write about their dream experiences. The questionnaire contained questioned related to the state of their dream, stress levels, nightmare frequency, etc. The participants also slept in rooms with continuous surveillance and with a polysomnography. The participants were tested on their dream and daydreaming conditions with similar procedures that were previously

It's hard to sleep at night when there's so many thoughts going through your head although sleep dread is not a thought but a disorder in a terrified state. Have you ever struggled on falling asleep because of the nightmares that you might experience? Or because you might feel like you're going to die while you are sleeping ? Let me tell you that you're not the only one. You are not alone. Sleep dread is a sleep disorder that affects 40% of the population one time or another. People do not seek treatment for this disorder. They believe this is normal until it takes over your life. Another word for sleep dread is Insomnia. Insomnia is " A habitual sleeplessness; inability to sleep." Sleep dread is becoming

An abundance of research has been generated on sleep and why it occurs, with results suggesting that dreaming may partially explain the phenomenon. Though results have failed to discover the primary function of sleep, they have unveiled dreaming as a secondary function, which despite not being fundamental for survival possesses a great deal of utility nonetheless. While the primary function of dreaming, much like the primary function of sleep, remains ambiguous; a number of theories and empirical studies have proposed secondary functions relevant to waking life. The threat simulation theory, for example, postulates that dreaming serves an evolutionary function, thought to have heightened survival and reproductive success in the Pleistocene era. The theory purports that dreaming allows for an endogenous simulation of potential threats, which rehearses the cognitive mechanisms necessary for threat perception and avoidance in reality (Valli, Revonsuo, Pälkäs, Ismail, Ali, & Punamäki, 2005; Arnulf, Grosliere, Le Corve, Golmard, Lascols & Duguet, 2014). Additionally, the continuity theory posits that dreams mirror waking life experiences, thus serving a predictive function. In accordance to this theory, dream imagery can be used to predict wellbeing, and diagnose depression and anxiety (Miller, DeCicco, Fox, & McCourt, 2015; DeCicco, Lyons, Pannier, Wright, & Clarke, 2010; Michels, Schilling, Rausch, Eifler, Zink, Meyer-Lindenberg, & Schredl, 2014). Lastly, dreams have a

The main idea of a nightmare is that it gives fear in dreams. Emotions are a big part of a nightmare. There can be seventy- five percent negative in an unhappy dream. Girls tend to have more nightmares than boys, and it usually starts at age ten. A way to cause nightmares is to have lots of anxiety or stress. The amygdala creates the fear. It is also part of the limbic system which also controls emotions, and images fear in the

The researcher’s belief was that the inflated self-confidence, that learning lucid dreaming would equip their patients with, would decrease the patient’s anxiety and therefore decrease the frequency of the nightmares. With supporting evidence from the experiment that there was a decrease in nightmare frequency, it can be assumed that the researchers think their results can be applied to the greater majority of adults suffering from recurrent nightmares. The researchers are assuming through this assertion that all adults suffering from nightmares are under stress. This can be applied to adults who are suffering from specifically stress resulting from events from 2014. It is not accurate to assume that all stress is the same and that people will be affected similarly to

I negatively judged the difference between night terrors and nightmares. I related them to each other and made the assumption that they were different only in the dreams. This was not true and learning more about night terrors made me change my position on what the difference really was between night terrors and nightmares. Night terrors are “a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified” Myers (2014). Nightmares, whoever, occur during the early morning REM while night terrors occur during the REM 3 stage of sleep. In REM 3 the brain is more active which is why “night terror patients showed an inhibition of outward expressions of aggression and a predominance of anxiety, depression, tendencies obsessive-compulsive/,

Sigmund Freud believed dreams to be the royal road to the unconscious and I’ve come to agree with this based on personal experience. Sigmund Freud saw the mind as an iceberg mostly submerged in water. The tip of this iceberg represented the conscious part of the ego and a small portion of the super-ego. While everything below the water was, unconscious including the Id and the rest of the super-ego. Freud believed that within the frozen core of this solitary iceberg were wishes so disgusting, horrifying and painful that they had to be repressed by the practical ego and pious superego for their own safety. However, these wishes were important to the id, our most primal and instinctive part of the psyche. These wishes while vile to the ego, are still necessary to be a whole person. However, the iceberg only allowed these vile wishes to ascend when the pressure was lowed from the higher functions. Freud saw that sleep as the moment of lowed pressure on the Id. This was due lowered ego defenses during times of rest. However, these defenses functioned enough to disguise the wishes somewhat though the process of

A 2014 study regarding: “information processing during sleep and stress-related sleep vulnerability” was aimed at determining a better insight into the correlation between sleep and individuals ' vulnerability to stress-related sleep. It involved highly respected institutions the: “Sleep Center, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Sleep Laboratory, Department of Psychology and the Research Center for Mind,

According to the study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, 216 participants were analzyed by researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School. Participants' sleep qualities, in conjuction with their mood, were studied over a period of two years.

There are studies that have shown that sleep and dreaming are linked to learning and to repair the body and mind. If we were to stop REM sleep or dreaming, the body recovers by increasing dream sleep first, recovering the loss of REM almost precisely. This suggests that dreaming is important. It has been observed that a lack of sleep causes waking dreams, interruption with memory and learning, difficulty of thinking straight, less associations, and more. It has therefore been suggested that REM or dream sleep is important in maintaining our well-being.

Levin show nightmares in relation to sleep paralysis are a result of consequences from variations in emotional pressures and stress. Nightmares are very frightening experiences that disturb sleep leaving the dreamer in a high state of emotional discomfort and terrifying arousal. The dreamer also experiences negative thoughts within the brain, elevated cardiac respiratory rates, panic attacks, and sweating due to the fact that they are unable to control their dreams. Just like nightmares, those who have experienced sleep paralysis report feeling an increase of heart rate and a very high sense of fear. Bed times and body positions also affect sleep paralysis. There was a study done by Dr. Cheyne in 2006 and the objective was to determine the distribution of sleep paralysis occurring naturally in relationship to their bedtime. Participants responded to an online questionnaire following each episode of sleep paralysis over a twelve month period and they found that a little over half the participant reported consistency in the timing. Overall, sleep paralysis episodes were reported to occur throughout the night within the first two hours of

In Module 9 on the topic of Sleep and Dreams, was an interesting topic that was discussed in class as many people normally question why and how we dream. There isn’t a specific reason in how dreams are functioned but there are different interpretations and stereotypes that people think have meanings and others that don’t.

The individuals suffering from these disorders usually present with sleep/wake complaints of dissatisfaction regarding the quality, timing and amount of their sleep. These disorders habitually result in daytime distress and impairments, which are the core features, shared by all of these sleep

Each of these findings reports a high level of statistical significance, indicating that it is unlikely the described differences between bad dream types is due to chance; yet, the size of difference remains unclear without a measure of effect. This research is well powered with sample size ranging from 635 to 638, raising the question as to how much of the statistical significance is related to the large sample. Without a measure of effect the answer is not forthcoming, and all practical significance is