If you get up suddenly at night sensing fear or distress, that leaves you disturbed and awake for the rest of the night, you might have just experienced a nightmare. Generally, such experiences bring along terrible emotional and mental disturbance, fear, anxiety, stress and depressiondefine, believed to be a normal reaction to the stress in life or traumatic or unpleasant circumstances one is going through.
Medical investigations have found that three-fourth of our everyday dream content is of negative emotions which make way for a nightmare. In medical terms it can be defined as a dream occurring during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that results in strong unpleasant emotional response, typically fear or horror or anxiety. Such dreams can be related to physical distress like high fever or psychological trauma or stress or may have no reason at all.
Few common symptoms amongst these could be nightmares and it is important to identify them like awakening repeatedly, mostly in the second half of sleep, recollecting bad incidents and disturbance caused by sudden awakening resulting in restlessness thereon.
Likely causes of nightmares can be:
• Some medication or withdrawal from it.
• Going to bed with a heavy stomach, as the high metabolic rate will induce restlessness causing bad dreams.
• Illness
• Stress & Anxiety
• Traumatic events in life like accident or bereavement.
• Excessive alcohol consumption or sudden withdrawal from it.
• Sleep apnea or insomnia
• Inherited nightmare tendency.
Sometimes nightmares don’t have gloomy influences because of gradual natural control on them. However, if one is experiencing them with more defined stress then, seeking help is the right way to tame them.
Talk to a doctor or therapist. Sometimes to overcome a trauma, psychic healing and counseling can make the much needed difference. Chuck those horror stories and read pleasant material before going to bed. Light exercises, yoga, aerobics help oxygenate the mind reducing chances of distress dreams. Avoid excessive caffeine and long-term tranquilizer intake. Don’t get in quickly after a heavy meal.
At times it may not be easy to read your mind and control it on your own. There could be several other symptoms or causes for nightmares than those listed here. Because there are many physiological and psychological factors correlated with them, it’s therefore best to talk to a specialist if you cannot arrest your horror on your own. Hesitation or long-term avoidance can make matters worse. But overall, maintain comfortable room temperature, go to bed and get up at the same time each day, exercise lightly and most importantly,help yourself be stress free.
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