Nightmare Science

Abstract

Most of us experience the occasional nightmare, a tendency that extends into extreme old age. Some, particularly creative, young females have frequent nightmares that disrupt sleep – meeting criteria for the diagnosis of nightmare disorder. A wide variety of medications and some neurological illnesses are known to induce nightmares.

In the situation of experienced trauma, nightmares are the most commonly reported symptom of PTSD. For approximately 50 percent of those affected, PTSD nightmares, often occurring outside REM sleep, include an apparently actual or metaphoric re-experience of experienced trauma. Other frightening dreams are associated with parasomnias: the hypnagogic hallucinations of Stage 1, the panic attacks of Stage 2, the sleep paralysis of REM sleep and sleep onset, and the night terrors and dreams associated with the arousal disorders of deep sleep (Stage 3). All of these frightening dreams are remarkable and significant cognitive experiences, the kind of dream remembered years later, and the kind of dream that artists and writers use in their work.