Nightmares are unhealthy sleep

Nightmares are dreams that bring out strong feelings of fear, terror, distress or anxiety. People who awake during a nightmare are likely to remember the details of it. There also isn't much information on exactly why dreams sometimes turn out to be nightmares, but it's believed that some daytime factors can play an influential role.

Experiences: Your dreams may include things like studying, test taking, a problem you're dealing with, working, family or a repetitive action you do during the day. Negative things like stress, fear, worry, arguments and other aspects of our days could also show up in nightmares. The most common time frame for dreams to incorporate episodic events and experiences is after one to two days or five to seven days.

Anxiety and Stress: Stress and anxiety can come in many forms, from temporary everyday things like moving to a new place, changing roles at school or work, or failing at a task, to more major things like divorce, losing a family member, trauma, or anxiety disorders. Being stressed and feeling anxiety is associated with poor sleep in general, and both may also trigger a nightmare.

Personality: researcher found adults with personality traits like dis-trustfulness, alienation, and emotional estrangement were more likely to experience chronic nightmares.

Environment: sleep research has documented that temperature and comfort can affect sleep quality, and environment may have some impact on dream content as well. temperatures that are too cold or too hot can lead less restful sleep and more awakenings (meaning more remembered dreams)

Traumatic Experiences: Recurring or more frequent nightmares have been linked with traumatic experiences, including events like relationship violence and surviving an accident.

Medications and Drugs: Certain types of medication, particularly those that influence neurotransmitters may influence nightmare frequency. These include antidepressants, narcotics, and barbiturates, as well as withdraw from other drugs that affect REM sleep. If nightmares start after medication changes, bring it up with your physician.

Eating before Bed: Snacking too close to bed time can cause indigestion, and it may also influence your metabolism and dreams. One study linked junk food with nightmares, while another found that a spicy meal close to bed time disturbs sleep,

Practice Good Sleep Hygiene: It's not always possible to completely prevent bad dreams, but setting the stage for good sleep can help ensure you snooze more soundly and feel better-rested. Your sleep space can have some bearing on your resting state. Ideally, bedrooms should be cool, dark and quiet.

The next time you have a nightmare think about all this possible factors.