Dreams and Nightmares: Where Do They Come From?

Dreaming is yet another state of consciousness. A dream is simply an unfolding episode of mental images that involve characters and events. Dreams usually tend to occur during REM sleep but can occur during NREM sleep as well. We dream on a variety of topics, subjects, and individuals. No dream can be exactly interpreted or defined, therefore people have always been fascinated with what, why, and how we dream. An unpleasant and almost terrifying type of dream is a nightmare. This is a very vivid, almost real

The humankind throughout history has tried to learn and figure out the meaning of dreaming. The interpretations and true meanings of dreams has expanded and has varied over centuries and cultures. Many of the earlier studies were based on culture’s and the interpretation of dreams, but also used as a form of prophecy, inspiration, and guidance. Many people still believe this such, people today beliefs and theories have opened up to a more vast interpretation, they are made up of; dreams are rare brain activity, dreams allow people to reflect on themselves, or that dreams are too massive to be correctly interpret. Although, not a single theory has been proven to this day, science as of why dreams occur is still a mystery.

Have you ever been terrified to fall asleep at night? Nightmares are frightful dreams in which the dreamer can feel threatened, severe anxiety, and deep distress. Emily Bowen has been experiencing these horrid dreams for the past week. These nightmares can send you into a movie like trance in which you are the star.

According to the International Association for the Study of Dreams, a nightmare is a terrifying or unpleasant dream. Most commonly nightmares are associated with fear and anxiety. b. Nightmares can have various causes. One of the more common causes of nightmares is the consumption or withdrawal from drugs/medicine. Illness can also cause nightmare.

Everyone in the world has had at least one dream in their lifetime. Most people don’t think much about the dreams they have, unless they are recurring. Most people today wake up from a dream or nightmare saying, “thank heaven that was a dream,” or “too bad that was just a dream.” Many times these dreams or nightmares have more meaning than we think.

The hypothesis of the study is that participants who have at least one nightmare per week will have more negative emotions in their dreams than the ones who have nightmares less than once a month; also, that the nightmare sufferers will have more stress in the morning and evening than the non-nightmare sufferers. An experimental study was performed using participants from a larger Canadian dream study. They selected sixty participants based on the criteria that they either had nightmares at least once a week, or they had nightmares less than once a month. The participants’ ages ranged from 13 to 58. The participants were split into two

Frequent nightmares can be caused by major life events. Constant stress or anxiety can lead to nightmares as well.

In the DSM V, a nightmare disorder is under the category known as parasomnia. A parasomnia is a sleeping disorder which involves an individual experiencing such events as sleeping walking or nightmares that occur when they are sleeping (Barlow & Durand, 2012). In order for one to be diagnosed with a “nightmare disorder,” they must first meet the required criteria. According to the APA (2013), there are five main criteria: A, B, C, D, and E. Criteria “A” states that an individual must be having reoccurring dreams in which they are threatened in some way, leaving them feeling

The pure excitement of dreams and even more concentrated terror of nightmares is a gamble that everyone has taken. Whether you like it or not the entire population of people on this earth require sleep in order to fuel themselves in their lives. Dreams no matter how vivid are still just dreams, though, right? Some dreams may be better however this is susceptible to perspective. In other words, maybe you like a scary dream or that violent dream that the average person wouldn't enjoy. Dreams, however, can be so vivid they can appear to transcend the barrier we define as reality and fiction, and these make those kinds of dreams truly terrifying.

First of all, some dreams that people dream of could be related to their personal problems. Or people dream because of their unconscious desires and wishes. Dreams have been observed as useful indications of what's on a person's mind. In addition, one article states “experts still do not completely understand why we dream or the causes behind dreams.” Finally, themes could be produced by thoughts that a person doesn’t want to think about so it comes out in their dream. People dream because of certain

As defined in the article “Intensified daydreams and nap dreams in frequent nightmare sufferers”, a nightmare is a terrifying dream that occurs in the REM sleep stage and wakes up the person experiencing the dream. The two types of nightmares that occur are idiopathic and frequent. Idiopathic nightmares only occur occasionally and have no known cause as to why people experience them. Although the cause is unknown, idiopathic nightmares seem to respond to ongoing stress and related concerns. The second type, a frequent nightmare, can occur once a week or more, and is linked with distress and bad psychological health. According to the article, people who experience frequent nightmares are more susceptible to suffer from anxiety and depression

Dreams are very unique and many people have theorized about what a dream 's meaning or purpose is, and what affects them. In most present day studies, more vivid dreams have been linked to the stage of sleep called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. REM dreams are emotional, bizarre, and sometimes so vivid we may confuse them with reality. Most commonly, a dream’s story line incorporates traces of previous day’s experiences and preoccupations. Unless a person is awakened during REM stage of sleep or the dream is exceedingly vivid or intense, most people don’t remember anything about their dreams during REM sleep. This is likely due to the fact that during REM sleep, our brain essentially turns off the ability to encode,or create, new memories.

Nightmares are unwanted events or experiences that occur while a person is sleeping or falling asleep. If a person suffers from nightmares, it can cause them to not want to go to sleep resulting in lack of rest which only causes more intense nightmares. Nightmares are usually extremely visual and realistic and tend to get more and more disturbing as they go along. These dreams tend to happen during the REM sleep period. Many people tend to confuse a nightmare with a bad dream. A nightmare is so intense and frightening that it wakes a person up. If a person has a disturbing dream that does not wake them up, then it is simply just a bad dream. Nightmares usually focus on anxieties, fears, terror, anger, sadness, embarrassment, and many real life situations. Most nightmares may just be a normal reaction to stress. Some

Nightmares are dreams that are scary or disturbing. They cause anxiety and fear, even after you wake up. People of all ages have nightmares, but they are more common in children. Nightmares usually begin before age 10, and girls are more likely to be troubled by them. Although such dreams are part of normal human experience, for some they can be a recurrent and extremely troubling problem. This is particularly so for young children but they can be disruptive to the whole family. Explanation and reassurance are often helpful particularly for parents who can then in turn be more reassuring to the affected child.

Dreams are “hallucinations of the sleeping mind” (Loftus & Ketcham). Dreams can be very vivid, loud, and even emotional. This is why it is easy to confuse them with reality. Dreams are kind of like taking all of a person’s wishes and emotions and putting them all in a little “shadow world” (Bynum) when they go to sleep at night. “What is common in all these dreams is obvious. They completely satisfy wishes excited during the day which remain unrealized. They are simply and undisguisedly realizations of wishes.” (Freud). A person may be experiencing an emotion or wishing for something without even realizing it at all. Dreams can sometimes show a person how they are truly feeling without even their own awareness of these feelings or wishes. A lot of a person’s reality and emotions are used in their dreams, however, this is not always the case. Dreams can also be extremely bizarre, confusing, and even repetitive. This is where the interpretation of dreams comes into action. Many people find it hard to believe that when they have a dream over and over again that it does not mean anything. These types of dreams are called recurring dreams. Recurring dreams happen