One of the things that I still haven’t out grown from when I was a child is my fear of nightmares. When I was a kid, I spent most of nights running into my parents’ room and snuggling in between them, after just being awoken from a nightmare I thought was real. Almost every one I know had that fear. Before I went to bed I would make my parents look under my bed and in my closet of fear that the “monster” in my dream would come to life.
People dream every night when they sleep. Many people still wonder why we dream, or what our dreams really mean. Individuals suppose that dreams happen for different reasons. For example, many people believe that your dreams display what you learned throughout the day, show your future, or connect us to the gods. While many people believe dreams have significance to them, others credit the “activation-synthesis hypothesis,” which states that dreams don’t actually have any importance, and it is just our imagination. The worst type of dream people experience is a nightmare.
A nightmare occurs after a person has been asleep for several hours and occurs because of rapid eye movement (REM). According to American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) fifty percent of children from the age of five to twelve have the worst nightmares, while only about two percent of adults have nightmares. Author and dream analysis, Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, states that nightmares occur during REM because our brain involuntary deals with the stress or issues we faced during the day. At night we are isolated in ourselves. People who also eat late night snacks or eat very unhealthy had a higher rate of nightmares because of the carbohydrates that cause more body digestion and increased brainpower. Even food allergies have been seen to increase the risk of a nightmare.
There are four stages of REM- sleep onset, light sleep, and deep sleep. Around every ninety minutes your brain is experiencing REM, which starts at the base of the brain with signals called pons. Pons travel to the cerebral cortex, which is used for thinking. The pons then move to the spinal cord which makes a persons muscles emotionless. This is used to makes a person not act out their nightmare. The pons then move to the Cortex which tries to understand what they are. Since the Cortex is unable to comprehend pons, it makes its own thing up with them and creates nightmares. The most active part of the brain during REM sleep is the Amygdala, which is known for having depressive thoughts and emotions. The Amygdala makes people more fearful and scared of the nightmares.
Although dreams happen for many different reasons, the most common cause of a nightmare is ones past. In studies people had a constant occurring dream and had no idea what from. It turns out that sometimes the brain remembered memories from the past that the people didn’t even remember. Nightmares happen all the time, but will science one day find something to prevent what haunts our brain at night?
Sources:
http://www.medicaldaily.com/bad-dream-more-just-dream-science-nightmares-327586https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/nightmares
https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/nightmares
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-behind-dreaming/
The research you’ve made about the experience of REM correlating to nightmares has its reliable conclusions. Although, there could always be existing confounding variables that aren’t necessarily mentioned in your analysis. Maybe REM can be associated with something else? For example, a disorder? This could further your analysis and thoughts about what really is a nightmare. Perhaps even lead to another question; are nightmares considered sleep disorders? This research article goes about explaining such associations.
This blog is so interesting to me because I have a ton of nightmares and I wasn’t sure why. Now I know! I am stressed a lot so that is probably a reason and I also eat carbs a lot. I love all the research you have and the facts. Great job!!
I find it very interesting that the Amygdala is very active during REM sleep. This makes sense in regards to nightmares occurring during REM sleep. Great job researching! You have so much information on how the brain operates during our sleep. SO INTERESTING!!!!!!