Women experience nightmares more intensely than men
POSTED January 21, 2009 - 14:04 | POSTED BY Pragati Khond
Last edited by Shikha Patial on January 21, 2009 - 15:44
Bristol, United Kingdom, January 21: Nightmares seem to hound the fairer sex the most as compared to men, suggests a recent study.
According to the study, women find it difficult to 'switch off' the thoughts and worries while retiring for the day and take them to the bed, therefore dealing with the emotional concerns in their sleep too.
Jennifer Parker, psychology lecturer at University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, studied 193 people to conclude the findings.
When asked to retrieve their last dream, 19 percent of the male participants admitted to having a nightmare whereas almost 34 percent females reported nightmares. Parker quoted that their study is first to analyze dreams on gender basis.
According to her, "From our results it appears that men and women differ in the frequency of nightmares - women have more - and women perceive those nightmares to be more emotionally intense. I think that women use their dreams as a subconscious coping strategy."
"I believe these results show that women carry over their waking concerns into their dream life more so than men do, and they appear to have more difficulty with 'switching off' their concerns," added Parker.
The study observed that nightmares in women revolve around three basic factors – losing a loved one, being chased or threatened and puzzled or confusing dreams. They encounter trouble in keeping their concerns away before calling it a day and continue worrying thereon.
"The interesting thing is, looking at the content of the nightmare reports, men and women are experiencing the same things, but women are experiencing them more intensely. Women had more unpleasant dreams than men and unpleasant dreams contained more misfortune, self-negativity and failures," quoted Parker.
Women participants confirmed that their nightmares were scary and more intense whereas men reported aggression in their nightmares. Women dream of family members and pessimism more often, and also tend to remember their nightmares for long, say researchers.
