Everyone has had a nightmare at least once in their life. Those in which you suddenly find yourself naked in front of many people or in which you fall into the void and wake up with a jump are usually very typical. Also those in which monsters worthy of horror movies appear or in which a loved one dies.
Having some nightmares does not usually cause other problems, beyond the discomfort caused by the dream itself. However, having frequent nightmares can be related to problems in psychological well-being. If you are curious, keep reading this article to find out How nightmares and mental health are related.
Nightmares are dreams, that is, vivid and unpleasant mental images, the content of which is generally related to dangers to our own physical or mental safety, or that of our loved ones; or situations that we find unpleasant.
They are lived as real and complex fantasies are created, since they are created in the REM phase of sleep, in which our brain is highly active. This includes the stimulation of the limbic area of the brain, which is responsible for provoking emotions; and the frontal cortex, in which relationships are established arbitrarily between thoughts, memories and emotions during sleep.
Due to this, nightmares provoke a strong emotional response in uscausing us unpleasant emotions such as fear, terror, sadness, guilt, shame, frustration or anxiety. The emotions and level of vividness of nightmares reach such intensity that they wake us up abruptly, in a state of high alarm and excitement, with the emotions and worries of the dream still fresh.
Having nightmares often has a strong relationship with various psychological problems, also bidirectionally: nightmares harm psychological well-being, and some psychological problems can cause nightmares. Among these problems, disorders related to emotions and sleep-wake disorders are usually more common, although a certain relationship with psychotic disorders has also been found.
1. Emotional disorders
Frequent or intense nightmares are often a sign that there are underlying problems with processing emotions. These difficulties can lead to:
These disorders have as a common symptom suffering emotional regulation difficulties.. In fact, there is a personality trait that is predisposing to suffering from any of these disorders, because it involves having intense, long-lasting and changing emotions. This personality trait is called neuroticism or emotional lability, and it turns out that it is also correlated with having recurring nightmares, that is, if you have high neuroticism you are more likely to also have nightmares and vice versa.
2. Sleep-wake disorders
Likewise, nightmares have a high correlation with sleep problems and disorders, such as insomnia and narcolepsy. It has even been recently discovered that insomnia is often the cause of frequent nightmares, due to a genetic coincidence between the two.
Insomnia decreases the quality of sleep and causes repeated interruptions in rest, as well as emotional regulation difficulties. Fragmented sleep, instability in the REM phase of sleep and emotional regulation difficulties are common symptoms among people who suffer from insomnia and those who have recurrent nightmares, with both problems coinciding most of the time.
In fact, nightmares can result in a psychological disorder in themselves if they are not explained by any of the above psychological problems or substance use: nightmare disorder. When this occurs, the following symptoms may occur:
It has been discovered that suffering from recurring nightmares during childhood triples the probability of suffering from a psychotic disorder when reaching adulthood. In fact, Genetic predisposition to schizophrenia is associated with sleep difficulties and the genetic predisposition itself to have a greater risk of nightmares.
And the fact of suffering frequent nightmares has a certain genetic cause. If there is a family history, there is a greater genetic predisposition to suffer from them. This can lead not only to psychological problems, such as those mentioned above, but also to physical health problems due to the absence of restful rest, such as neurological, digestive or cardiac problems.
What should I do if I have a lot of nightmares?
If nightmares have become a problem for you, due to their frequency or intensity, I recommend trying to follow a series of guidelines to take care of your sleep hygiene and general psychological well-being. If after following these guidelines, your sleep problems persist, I recommend go to a health specialist.
Try to follow a set time for going to bed and getting up, regardless of what day it is. If you have trouble falling asleep after waking up from a nightmare, avoid naps, and drink stimulants (coffee, tea, sugary and sports drinks…) and alcohol during the day.
Also try to have a light dinner, since heavy meals can directly cause nightmares by requiring you to keep the body’s organic functions especially active. Also try to organize your dinner times so that there is a certain regularity and margin between eating food and going to bed. What’s more, since meal timing is closely related to circadian rhythms, I suggest you maintain a set schedule for all meals of the day.
Additionally, to maintain the hormones responsible for the sleep-wake cycle (melatonin and serotonin) at appropriate levels, I recommend go outside for at least half an hour (or to the terrace if you have one) to receive natural light. Also, avoid screens on electronic devices in the hour before bed and use warm lights at night to move around the house.
Also do activities that help you relax and regulate your emotions appropriately. To do this, you can do light sports in the morning or afternoon to be able to fall asleep more quickly naturally and feel better physically. If sport is not your thing, you can turn to your hobbies, since doing pleasant activities considerably increases our pleasant emotions and reduces stress.
As night approaches, try to keep these activities calm and not overly stimulating. This will depend on each person, but you can try before going to sleep to shower with warm water, listen to calm music, paint mandalas or read pleasant books. If the plot of the book is intense, be careful about getting hooked, it can be addictive and you won’t want to put the book down!
