What are the symptoms of nightmare disorder?
The main symptom of nightmare disorder is a pattern of nightmares. While it’s common to have nightmares every once in a while, if you have them frequently and they interfere with your daily functioning, you may have nightmare disorder.
Common themes of nightmares include threats to your:
- Survival
- Physical well-being.
- Security.
You may also experience the following physical symptoms when you have a nightmare:
- Sweating.
- Shortness of breath.
- Racing heart.
The main emotion nightmares cause is fear, although you may experience other emotions such as:
- Anger
- Anxiety.
- Embarrassment.
- Disgust.
- Shame.
- Sadness.
These physical symptoms and emotions can occur during the dreaming episode, upon awakening from the nightmare or when later remembering the dream.
Due to nightmare disorder, you may have:
- Mood disturbance, such as anxiety or depression.
- Sleep resistance.
- Fatigue.
- Daytime sleepiness (hypersomnia).
- Difficulty concentrating.
- Behavioral issues.
- Impaired functioning at work or school.
- Impaired social functioning.
Quality sleep is very important to your overall health, so it’s important to talk to your healthcare provider if you think you have nightmare disorder.
What causes nightmare disorder?
Researchers continue to study sleep and its effect on us. While they’ve learned a lot about sleep, dreams and nightmares, there’s still much that’s unknown.
Researchers don’t know what exactly causes nightmares and nightmare disorder, but they have multiple theories.
One theory is that nightmare disorder may be influenced by increased hyperarousal that builds during the day and remains at night.Hyperarousal is a mood-altering symptom in which you’re consistently irritable, angry and paranoid. It’s a well-known symptom of PTSD and insomnia. Hyperarousal may make certain areas of your brain overactive while you sleep, causing nightmares.
Another theory involves a concept called fear extinction. Under regular circ*mstances, your brain is able to combine fearful memories with new and unrelated contexts to allow for normal sleep and dreams. This is called fear extinction. According to the impaired fear extinction theory, people with nightmare disorder continue to activate fear memories during sleep. The theory states that people who have difficulty regulating their emotions in stressful situations and tend to react negatively to stress are more prone to nightmares.
FAQs
Nightmare disorder is a pattern of repeated frightening and vivid dreams that affects your quality of life. It ranges from mild to severe and can be short-term or chronic. Nightmare disorder is treatable with various psychotherapies and medications. It commonly affects people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What are nightmares caused by? ›
Nightmares can be triggered by many factors, including: Stress or anxiety. Sometimes the ordinary stresses of daily life, such as a problem at home or school, trigger nightmares. A major change, such as a move or the death of a loved one, can have the same effect.
What can you do to stop nightmares? ›
Do quiet, calming activities — such as reading books, doing puzzles or soaking in a warm bath — before bed. Meditation, deep breathing or relaxation exercises may help, too. Also, make the bedroom comfortable and quiet for sleep.
What are the different types of nightmare disorder? ›
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS — The differential diagnosis of nightmare disorder includes dysphoric dreams ("bad dreams"), other parasomnias, such as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and sleep terrors, and psychiatric disorders such as nocturnal panic attack (table 3).
What are the three types of nightmares? ›
The three types of nightmares are idiopathic, recurrent, and post-traumatic. Idiopathic Nightmares – are dream sequences that are not the result of trauma but often happen when a person is very stressed.
Are nightmares warning signs? ›
In a way, chronic nightmares can be a warning about your physical or mental health. If chronic nightmares are disturbing your sleep, it's worth bringing it up to a doctor or therapist. They'll be able to help you create a plan for more peaceful sleep.
Are nightmares a mental illness? ›
While nightmares are associated with certain mental health conditions, such as PTSD, anxiety and depression, nightmares aren't considered a psychiatric illness. They're a type of parasomnias, which are behavioral sleep abnormalities.
Can nightmares be cured? ›
CBT alone is effective in the treatment of nightmares, although more specialized nightmare-focused treatment variants like CBT-I, IRT, and exposure, relaxation, and rescripting therapy (ERRT) have improved results.
What medication stops dreams? ›
The following may be used for the treatment of nightmare disorder: nitrazepam, prazosin, and triazolam. The following are not recommended for the treatment of nightmare disorder: clonazepam and venlafaxine.
How do you heal from nightmares? ›
Grounding
- Breathing exercises such as the 4-7-8 breathing (inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds)
- Drinking a cold beverage.
- Applying an ice pack to a specific area of the body.
- Smelling a scented item such as an essential oil, scented lotion, or an orange.
Generally, individuals suffering from BPD experience negative dreams, including nightmares, more often than individuals who do not have any of the characteristic symptoms of this personality disorder (Schredl et al., 2012). Nightmares are sleep disturbances that are related to sleep disorders.
What is a nightmare disorder in the brain? ›
Nightmare Disorder Brain Science
Although nightmare disorder causes distress, brain activity during nightmares is part of most people's typical sleep cycle. Nightmares, like most dreams, occur most often during REM sleep, a phase in which the brain is relatively active.
How rare is nightmare disorder? ›
Nightmare disorder, also called dream anxiety disorder, is a rare type of sleep-related disorder (parasomnia) affecting about 4% of adults, causing distress and sleep problems.
How to make nightmares go away? ›
10 tips to prevent nightmares and stop bad dreams
- Establish a bedtime routine. ...
- Create a sleep-friendly environment. ...
- Take active steps to manage your stress during the day. ...
- Avoid stimulating activities before bed. ...
- Exercise during the day. ...
- Avoid heavy meals before bed. ...
- Relax before falling asleep.
Indeed, studies suggest that nightmares are often linked to unmet psychological needs and/or frustration with life experiences. Yet those links aren't always easy to make—except in cases of trauma (discussed below), our nightmares tend to reflect our troubles through metaphor rather than literal representation.
Why do nightmares happen? ›
For example, anxiety and depression can cause adult nightmares. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) also commonly causes people to experience chronic, recurrent nightmares. Nightmares in adults can be caused by certain sleep disorders. These include sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome.
Why do nightmares feel so real? ›
In fact, research shows that brain activity levels during REM sleep are comparable to when we're awake. And some areas of the brain are even more active, including the amygdala and hippocampus, which control our memory and emotions. This may help explain why dreams dreamt during REM sleep can feel so real.
Do nightmares represent anything? ›
While dreams often help us work things through, regulate our emotions, and address concerns, nightmares likely represent a breakdown in this function, he notes. “The emotions become so overwhelming that the sleeper ends up waking up, so whatever work was being done becomes interrupted,” explains Zadra.
What's the difference between night terrors and nightmares? ›
During a night terror you may talk and move about but are asleep. It's rare to remember having a night terror. Nightmares are bad dreams you wake up from and can remember. Night terrors are most common in children between the ages of 3 and 8, while nightmares can affect both children and adults.
