A 2010 Hong Kong study found that about 1 in 20 people had nightmares at least once a week.
dr However, Michael Nadorff, associate professor of psychology at Mississippi State University and president-elect of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, says it’s important to note that not all people who have nightmares remember them. Nadorff explains that most dreams are actually negative, but most of them come and go without being remembered.
Here’s what Nadorff has to say about nightmares and how to prevent them, or at least stop yourself from remembering them.
Why is yawning contagious?:Here are all the facts about your tired tick.
What Causes Nightmares?
Nadorff, who specializes in nightmares, says everyone has negative dreams, but not everyone remembers them. “You don’t usually remember it unless you wake up in the middle of it,” he explains. According to Nadorff, waking up from REM sleep when dreams occur is the only way to remember a nightmare.
Waking up from REM sleep isn’t bad for you, according to Nadorff. In fact, people wake up at night more often than they might realize. A full sleep cycle lasts approximately 90 to 110 minutes, and REM is the last stage of sleep after which people typically wake up. About those nighttime awakenings, Nadorff says, “We kind of look around, make sure the house isn’t on fire, and then go back to sleep, and if that happens within five minutes, you’ll never remember it happened.”
While nightmares can be scary, Nadorff explains that they can be a sign that your brain is taking proper care of itself. Experiencing nightmares within a month of trauma is actually healthy, according to Nadorff, who says nightmares can act as exposure therapy. “If it’s in the first month after trauma, that’s actually normal and healthy,” he explains.
Recurring nightmares, especially those that wake you up in the middle of the night, can be frustrating. Many details about dreaming are not known for certain, but Nadorff has an idea of why people are awakened by recurring nightmares. “I think it’s actually avoidance behavior,” he says. “Think of awakening as avoiding a negative dream, but also remembering that you had the dream.”
How to avoid nightmares
To avoid waking up from potentially disturbing nightmares and remembering them, Nadorff has some recommendations.
The most important step is establishing a normal sleep routine. “Having roughly the same bedtime and wake-up time every day works wonders,” says Nadorff.
He also says temperature can play a role in waking up from REM sleep, which could cause you to remember a nightmare. He explains, “REM sleep is one of the few instances when your body is unable to control its own body temperature, so your body temperature drops while you’re in REM sleep.” He continues, ” What used to feel warm and cozy now feels hot and sweaty because of your body temperature relative to the space around you.” Possible solutions to this include sleeping with fewer blankets or adjusting your air conditioner to make your room a little colder at night .
Nadorff adds that drinking liquids too late at night can also make you more likely to remember your nightmares. If you’re in REM sleep when your body wakes you up, you’re more likely to remember a negative dream you had.
For those with persistent nightmares who have tried these basic recommendations without success, Nadorff recommends a treatment called image repetition therapy.
Just curious?:We are here to answer life’s everyday questions
What is Image Repetition Therapy?
Image therapy is actually quite simple. If patients have frequent nightmares, Nadorff recommends rehearsing a dream they would like to have. “We have them write down a new dream,” he explains, “and we have them practice that new dream by visualizing it as vividly as possible, about twice a day for five to 10 minutes each time.”
Nadorff says that visualizing an alternate dream in this way can trick the brain into believing its content is meaningful. He says: “If you have something very graphic that happens more than once a day . . . the brain thinks, “That must have been pretty important. I better keep that.’” Later, when someone enters REM sleep, Nadorff explains that their memory of the image sample will be one of the memories the brain is likely to encode. “That’s why people often report that they have this dream that they’ve been practicing,” he concludes.
