subject: Nightmares: Horrible Dreams and its Causes [print this page] Nightmares: Horrible Dreams and its Causes
Having nightmares, whether in childhood or adulthood is never a good thing as it opens one to fearful and unexplainable feelings, making the person vulnerable and weak. However, there are reasons why these nightmares occur. Read this helpful article to get a better understanding about why and how nightmares occur.
A horrible dream that causes one to wake up from sleep is called nightmare. Compared to night terrors, it occurs during the rapid-eye movement sleep. When one has nightmares, he cannot remember what it is all about other than having a bad dream.
Nightmare is a bad dream that makes one feel scared and threatened. The person who experience this may feel that he is going to die or somebody is about to kill him. Normally, the sleeper wakes up at the peak of the dream or before it was finished. A person waking up from a frightening dream may experience increased heart rate and excessive sweating. There are a lot of causes of nightmares. Below are some of the reasons why they occur.
Causes of nightmarish dreams vary in different ages. One of the reasons for having them among children is the boogeyman. They tend to bring their fear of the creature with them when they sleep resulting to nightmares. Aside from boogeyman, children experience it because of other reasons like their fear towards their new school, conflicts between parents and watching horror films. Being bullied at school can also bring about scary dreams in kids.
As children grow and become teenagers, they come to learn that the boogey man is just a myth. Thus, the reason for their dreams now is different while they were kids. Teenagers have them because of the problems they are facing at this stage of their lives. Some of its causes among teenagers are lack of sleep, stress and drug withdrawal such as after using prescribed drugs for treatment of an illness. Eating before going to bed can also bring terrifying visions for the increase in the metabolism may signal the brain to move, thus causing nightmares.
According to studies, compared to men, women have greater chances of having different nightmares. These horrible dreams among women may occur because of medications such as anti-depressants and drugs for sleeping. Too much vitamin B6 as well as hypoglycemia can also cause bad dreams among women.
Different things can also cause it in adults. Adults may have them because of stress and illness. Also, eating late and before sleeping can also cause nightmares. Fear, phobia and problems in the family can also bring about horrible dreams in adults.
In general, nightmares bring feelings of anxiety, fear and distress to a person and they usually occur during the second part of the sleep. Above are just some of the causes of nightmares and hopefully, you will be able to know what causes yours.
