Nightmares are an indicator of a person’s physical and mental health

Nightmares are sleep disturbances in the form of negatively colored dreams. Which leads to anxiety and depression, causes irritability, worsens overall well-being and reduces quality of life.

Therapy for the presence of nightmares in the clinic is carried out depending on the true reasons for their occurrence. We restore the biological rhythm of the brain and nightmares go away along with their causes.

Every person has nightmares from time to time. A common cause of nightmares is unprocessed daytime fears and concerns. However, there are many other reasons for bad dreams. Experts identify several reasons for the occurrence of nightmares.

More about nightmares

Nightmares can be defined as long, complex dreams that cause symptoms of anxiety, fear and sadness associated with negative emotions. During a nightmare, a person may wake up from a perceived danger. Nightmares occur during REM sleep and occur late at night. After a nightmare, it is usually difficult for a person to fall asleep.

Nightmares are common in children. They usually begin to appear between the ages of 3 and 6 years, and then gradually decrease in number by age 10. However, sometimes they can last a lifetime.

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About 50% of adults experience occasional nightmares. The causes of nightmares can be unpleasant situations, injuries, lack of sleep, irregular sleep schedules, and jet lag. About 1% of adults who experience frequent nightmares seek professional help. Research has shown that women have more nightmares than men.

Unless nightmares happen every night or interfere with our daily lives, there is no reason to worry. However, when they occur with a certain frequency, disrupt sleep, cause insomnia, anxiety, fear of going to bed or cognitive problems during the day, they may be considered a mental disorder. Nightmares have no specific interpretation, but they can be a symptom of something that is bothering or frightening us.

Restless sleep and nightmares in dreams in adults

During the daytime, the body is charged with energy for its work activities, of course, if the person slept well at night. And not every person succeeds in this. Most people cannot fall asleep in the evening, but some people, on the contrary, fall asleep easily, but at night they are tormented by restless and anxious sleep, and from the very morning they have had a bad day. If a person neglects proper sleep, he often lacks sleep, thereby his brain ages prematurely, and the functioning of the body’s organs is disrupted. Then there are factors that cause insomnia.

I would immediately like to name some diseases that contribute to the formation of anxious sleep and the occurrence of nightmares during sleep, these are, for example, symptoms of prostatitis in men, due to which a person cannot fully rest during the night, frequent night trips to the toilet caused by the urge to urinate due to prostatitis , do not allow a person to regain strength. People who drink alcoholic beverages do not have proper sleep, which leads to drowsiness, but not to normal sleep: after the effects of alcohol, a state of half-asleep occurs, while the person does not rest.

Causes of nightmares

Nightmares can be caused by stress, eating too much before bed, or watching a horror movie. A recurring bad dream is usually associated with some kind of anxiety. Here are the most common causes of nightmares:

• A negative, stressful or traumatic life experience, such as the death of a loved one.
• Stress at work or in the family.
• Watching a horror movie or reading a scary book.
• Heavy food before bed.
• Alcohol or drug abuse.
• Certain medications that affect the hormones or neurotransmitters that regulate REM sleep.
• Sudden cessation of alcohol, drug or medication use.
• Recurring bad dreams may also be a sign.
• Disturbed breathing during sleep (sleep apnea).
• Post-traumatic stress disorder has been identified as a leading cause of nightmares. People with it again and again experience the feeling of fear and horror of a traumatic event. A study found that 80% of people with this condition report regular nightmares.
• Sleep disturbance.
• Depression or anxiety.

Happy dream theory

While nightmares are often useful alarm signals, the most traumatic ones may indicate the need for treatment. This applies to nightmares that arise as a result of an accident, a car accident, aggression, or psychological shock that we cannot cope with.

“During World War II, in order to heal soldiers with psychological trauma, American military psychologists developed a special technique that multiplied the number of nightmares,” says Toby Nathan. “And then, after a certain time, a final, resolving dream arose, “with a happy ending.” A bomber pilot who had to jump out of a car engulfed in flames ended up having a dream in which his plane landed softly, he himself happily escaped danger and met with other crew members for a glass of strong drink.

Today, such dreams “with a happy ending” can be achieved using much more gentle techniques, in particular, for example, based on visualization. One of them, imagery rehearsal therapy, or IRT, was developed in the USA and is now used in Europe.

The patient, together with the psychotherapist, mentally rewrites the script of the obsessive nightmare. By attracting the most pleasant images and details, the patient composes a more prosperous ending to the story, which is embedded in his psyche. At the same time, the nightmare that was traumatic for him dissipates. Cure usually occurs within five to eight weeks.

Most common nightmares

Some nightmares are repeated in different people, for example:

• I'm being pursued by someone who could kill you.
• I'm naked among a lot of people.
• I have to take an exam, but I'm not ready for it.
• I'm falling from a height.
• I'm in a car that has lost control.
• I am late for an important meeting or event.
• My teeth are falling out.
• I offend my loved one.
• I lost a loved one.

To identify the problem causing nightmares, it is necessary to undergo therapy with a specialist.

Content:

1. Sleep disorders after prolonged drinking.
2. Why do I have nightmares and insomnia after drinking?
3. After binge drinking I have nightmares: what to do.
4. Nightmares after heavy drinking: what not to do.

Sleep disturbance occurs when the body can no longer function normally without alcohol due to chronic intoxication of the central nervous system. Insomnia and nightmares after binge drinking are harbingers of delirium tremens and indicate a psychopathological variant of the development of abstinence.

How to deal with nightmares

Set a schedule

Go to bed at the same time, especially on weekends. Changing your schedule can cause insomnia. Remember, getting a lot of sleep on the weekends does not compensate for lost sleep during the work week. It is best to sleep 7-9 hours every day.

Exercises

Exercising for 30 minutes every day helps people sleep better. But try not to exercise too hard before bed, which can also harm you.

Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol

Avoid drinking stimulant drinks that contain caffeine or other stimulants (coffee, energy drinks, tea, high-sugar foods). Smokers tend to sleep lightly and get up early in the morning due to their nicotine needs, so the best thing you can do for your health is to quit smoking. Alcohol also has a negative effect on sleep.

Learn to relax

Nightmares can occur due to anxiety and stress. Relaxation techniques can help reduce anxiety, also try to spend more time with friends and family, and pick up a hobby that gives you pleasure.

Good sleep hygiene

• Keep the room at a comfortable temperature, neither hot nor cold.
• Use a bed for sleeping, not a sofa or something similar.
• If you can't sleep, read a book.
• Don't eat 2 hours before bedtime.

Consult a psychologist

If you have experienced any trauma that is affecting you in other areas of your life, please contact a mental health professional. Talking about what's on your mind can help you manage your past or present.

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There is no person who never has nightmares. In most cases, they can be explained by experiencing a nervous shock, watching a thriller, or hearing bad news. But what if frightening dreams began to “visit” almost every night or their plot has a certain consistency?

There is no need to think that nightmares are harbingers of madness or that the brain is “punishing” us. The dreams themselves may contain clues about why they come and what meaning they carry.

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Nightmares in children

It is normal for children to have the following nightmares:

• Realistic fears such as aggressive dogs, sharks, spiders, etc.
• Imaginary fears are like monsters.
• Stressful situations they have seen or experienced.

Depending on their level of language proficiency, children can tell adults about nightmares in more or less detail.

Nightmares are normal in children. Just because your child has nightmares from time to time does not mean he or she has mental problems. Children with vivid imaginations have more nightmares than others, but there is nothing to worry about. However, if your child has recurring nightmares and the child experiences severe stress during the day, it is worth seeking help from a specialist.

When you need specialist help

With both nightmares and night terrors, the help of a pediatrician or neurologist is not needed if they rarely bother the child. Yes, it's unpleasant and can even really scare parents, but night terrors will go away with age. But if your baby starts wetting the bed, which he hasn’t done for a long time, or if he wakes up in horror several times a week, then it wouldn’t hurt to discuss the situation with a specialist.

We fight the monster under the bed and in the closet

When we talk about nightmares, we cannot help but mention childhood phobias, which worsen just in the evening, before bedtime. One of the leaders in the frightening rating is a monster that lives under the bed or in the closet. This monster appears right there when the light in the nursery turns off and the child is left alone.

This fear is born around three or four years old, when the baby begins to develop imagination. Yes, even many adults are afraid to pull their leg out from under the sheet at night, otherwise the “babyka” will grab it. What can we say about children! By the way, the fear of monsters has a plus: this phobia says that the child is developing correctly. This is, after all, one of the stages of growing up that must be passed through.

How to help:
The next day, ask your child to draw or sculpt a monster that scares him. Then you can offer to play with this monster and thereby make friends with it or finish drawing something funny for it (long mustache, boots in the form of skis, etc.). Then the monster will no longer be scary, but cheerful.

If a child refuses to draw, then you can invite him to come up with a story. Why does this monster live in the closet? What if he himself is afraid of people, so he hides? Or maybe he lost his mom and is sad? Then we need to help the family reunite, and then the monster will return to his home, and will not live in someone else’s closet. In a word, the more details you come up with with your baby and the more the monster looks like a person, the less fear it will cause.

You can also call upon therapeutic fairy tale therapy to help. Child psychologist Nadezhda Lustina works in this area and in an interview with Svetlana Alexandrova says:

«In the fairy tale about Mitrosha, fear was worked out at the end. The hero was afraid of the Black Bat, who settled in his closet. The boy himself, when we talked with him, talked about the monster in the closet. I came up with the Black Bat - this is the brother of Darkness. There's a whole artistic history there. In the end, the boy finds out that this is not a villain at all, not a terrible dragon, but just a little flying mouse, who was also scared when the boy screamed. The mouse tried to fly out through the window and injured its wing. They had a fight with their sister Darkness because the mouse wanted to make friends with the boy, but she was against it. Therefore, he remained in our world, so to speak, for a long time looking for a little person who would not be afraid of him. And so Star Bear helped the main character get to know his fear with his own eyes. The boy extended his hand, Krylan extended his paw, and in the end they became friends. Everything ended well."

Read more about this direction in the interview “Therapeutic fairy tales: how to help a child with a fairy tale.”

Another good assistant in the fight against the insidious monster is a regular spray bottle. Every evening the child takes it out, sprinkles it with “magic” water, which drives away monsters, under the bed or in the closet. If it does not help, then the ritual must be repeated.

How to help a child if he has nightmares?

Children often cry after nightmares. They need you to comfort them. As a child gets older, they begin to understand that a dream is just a dream. Here are some ideas for managing childhood nightmares and helping you overcome them.

• If your child wakes up from a nightmare, explain that it was just a bad dream. Tell him everything is okay and he is safe. A kiss or caress can help calm your baby.
• Let him know that there is nothing wrong with being scared by a nightmare. Avoid minimizing their fear or reaction.
• If your preschooler is afraid of monsters, explain that they don't exist. Although they may seem scary, they are not harmful to children.
• Be patient if your child talks about a scary dream the next day. Listen to them and try to neutralize the events of the dream.
• Calmly talking about dreams can help remove the emotional power of these dreams. Dim lighting in the room can also help the child not be afraid.

Common causes of restless sleep

A severe category of having nightmares, restless and anxious sleep is a post-stress state. This type of sleep appears after stressful circumstances.

In order to recover from insomnia and nightmares, you should not resort to sleeping pills, you need to get to the depths, the source of nightmares. Build a logical chain that could cause your nightmares. To do this, you can resort to a little trick. Write down on paper everything that happened before this event. Write down everything that happened, without choosing by importance what is needed and what is not. Then read carefully and highlight what aroused the greatest interest. If this is the reason, then voila, you have found the answer to the cause of painful nightmares.

There is an alternative way - depict fear on paper. Concentrate on your nightmares and make some illustrations. It is likely that the drawing will suggest the cause of fear or the right path in which to move in order to get rid of fear. By looking into your soul, you will challenge your fear. After terrible dreams, restless and anxious sleep will pass as if nothing had happened.

Doctor's advice

Some advice from a psychotherapist: stick to your body’s normal routine. Avoid stressful and conflict situations throughout the day. Be careful about the environment in which you sleep. A walk at night before bed will only contribute to good emotions, which entails healthy, strong dreams.

Literature:

1. Causes of development and clinical manifestations of alcohol disorders and drug addiction: educational manual / Yu. N. Novichkova; National Health Institution “Scientific Clinical, Center for Postgraduate and Professional Education, Department of Additional Professional Education of Secondary and Junior Medical Personnel. - Moscow: Max Press, 2022. - 81 p.
2. Mental illnesses: clinic, treatment, prevention: [Ref. a manual for neurologists, psychotherapists and doctors of other specialties] / Tyuvina N. A. - M.: Publishing house. house "KRON-press", 1997. - 250 p.
3. Psychiatry: a textbook for students of medical universities / M. V. Korkina [et al.]. — 4th ed. - Moscow: MEDpress-inform, 2008. - 566 p.

Clinical picture

• Physiological mobility - flinching. It is characterized by muscle tremors, and the sleeper may cry out.
• Teeth grinding – bruxism. In this case, breathing often changes, heartbeat appears, and blood pressure increases.
• Sudden excitement and anxiety, mental agitation, fears at night.
• Unconscious urination – in other words, enuresis.
• Disorders in the functioning of the nervous system, which are manifested by intermittent breathing.

What to do? To prevent restless sleep all the time, start small - follow simple norms and rules.