Why do we get nightmares?

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Why do we get nightmares?

Thanks for asking.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 50-85% of adults experience occasional nightmares, with 2-8% of people having nightmares that cause sleep problems. As a general rule, women tend to have nightmares more often than men, and the older we get, the less frequent and intense our nightmares get. No one likes having nightmares, do they? These vivid, distressing, bad dreams often cause us to jolt awake, heart pounding in fear or anxiety. They can feature threatening scenarios, monsters, or deeply unsettling experiences. How exactly do nightmares work?

We don't know for sure, but scientists believe that certain parts of the brain are involved. It all starts in the hippocampus, an area that plays a significant role in regulating and processing memory. That's where the scenarios of our nightmares are constructed. The hippocampus combines anxiety-inducing elements from experienced fears with more benign memories. The scenario then activates the amygdala, a small almond-shaped part of the brain which controls a number of emotions, and fear in particular. During a bad dream, the amygdala believes it's reliving a dangerous memory and triggers all sorts of negative emotions. Fortunately, the prefrontal cortex, located at the front of the brain and responsible for regulating our behaviour, then intervenes. It analyses the nightmare and inhibits the fear it arouses, transforming it into a tolerable memory. Are we saying that is the purpose of nightmares then?

Exactly. Well, the purpose of bad dreams, at least. They help us process our memories of fears, and most of all come to terms with them. The problem is that sometimes the prefrontal cortex fails in its mission to neutralise our fears. You've probably experienced it before, when you wake up suddenly completely terrified.

You could say that a bad dream becomes a nightmare when it wakes you up in the middle of the night. That means the frontal areas of the brain haven't managed to suppress the strong emotions coming from the amygdala, as they do during the day. What should you do when nightmares become recurring? First, keep a dream journal. Documenting your nightmares can help you identify patterns and potential triggers. Recurring nightmares are sometimes a sign of post-traumatic stress, which can come on after an accident, assault or deep loss, for example. You may consider discussing your nightmares with a therapist or counsellor who can provide guidance and support. Practising relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation often helps reduce anxiety before bedtime. In other cases, psychologists use hypnosis and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing to help patients overcome nightmares. Remember, facing your fears and understanding the underlying emotions in your nightmares can be a powerful way to diminish them. Over time, recurrent nightmares can decrease as you work through the issues that could be fuelling them. There you have it.

Now you know why we get nightmares. In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you will really know it for sure.

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