Nightmare Research Papers

If you’ve ever had a nightmare, you know just how scary they are; pounding heartbeat, sweating, wanting to wake up but you just can’t seem to do so and you are all alone with no one to call for help. Imagine having a nightmare every single night, that’s what is called having Nightmare Disorder. Nightmare Disorder is when one has constant nightmares which causes distress or problems, interfering with daytime function.
Nightmare Disorder is much more intense than just having occasional nightmares. People who have been diagnosed with Nightmare Disorder, often fear having to go to sleep which prevents them from getting a normal amount of sleep, causing many other issues like having a weaker immune system, becoming forgetful, and increased cancer risk. Things like ordinary stress from daily activities with school or family can trigger nightmares, as well as trauma, sleep deprivation, certain medications, substance abuse, or sometimes from something as simple as a scary movie.
Many doctors and psychologists have often times diagnosed Nightmare Disorder as a
While it may seem that once you are asleep, your whole body is too but the entire brain is active during nightmares, from the brainstem to the cortex. Nightmares occur during REM, which occurs usually ten minutes after a ninety minute sleep cycle when one is in their deepest sleep, all controlled by the reticular activating system. Nightmares that cause emotion like fear and sadness are all controlled in the limbic system of the brain. If you’ve ever wondered why we have the dreams that we have, often relating to situations in our daily lives, like the one about how you show up to school in your underwear, blame the cortex. Lastly, there is the frontal lobe, the least active part of the brain during dreams, which is responsible for how accepting we are to the crazy scenarios our brains come up