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In Your Dreams |
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Nightmares
A nightmare is a disturbing dream that usually forces awakenings. The dreamer might feel a number of emotions during a nightmare. Some are anger, sad, or depressed. The most common feelings are fear and anxiety. Nightmare themes will often change from one person to the next. The most common dream is being chased. Adults are usually chased by an unidentified male. Children are often chased by animals. Who has nightmares? Almost everybody has nightmares. Usually children have nightmares between the ages of three or four and seven or eight. Nightmares are a normal part of development. Nightmares often do not show any unusual problems. Adults do not have as many nightmares as children do. About 5-10% of adults have one nightmare every month or more frequently. Why do people have nightmares? Some nightmares can be caused by medicine or drugs, or by sudden withdrawal of them, or by physical conditions such as illness. Nightmares of early childhood reflect the struggle to learn to deal with problems and fears. Many people have nightmares after traumatic events in their life such as, undergoing surgery, the death of a friend or relative, an assault or sever accident. Nightmares of war veterans all fall into this category. These nightmares are most often directed to traumatic events and these dreams repeat over and over again. Other people experience nightmares because of their awake lives. Finally some people have nightmares unrelated to their lives. These people are creative. What can we do to prevent nightmares?It depends on what caused the nightmare. To stop taking drugs or medication as a cause, a talk with a physician is necessary. It is recommended to talk with a child about their nightmares or night terrors. Generally children do not need to have treatment. If a young child is having a reoccurring dream or a very distressing dream, the child should probably see a psychiatrist or therapist. A therapist will often have a child draw a picture of the nightmare or night terror. The therapist will help the child feel less scared and feel safer. Nightmares that repeat a disturbing event is part if normal physic recovery. Adults’ nightmares often offer a chance to explore themselves. With practice, the dreamer can decode their dreams to see the relation of the dream and the real life. Nightmares are by nature are distressing. The dreamer might have to relive the distress before looking at the dream and finding out what it really means. There are many ways of reliving distress from a nightmare, such as writing it down or thinking of a happy ending to the dream. If you need a therapist to help sort out your dreams don’t be hesitant to go to one. Night terrorsNight terrors are much different than a nightmare. Nightmares come after many hours of sleep. Screaming and tossing around in bed are very uncommon. Night terrors often occur during the first couple of hours of sleep. Loud screaming and moving around a lot are very common, the dreamer is hard to awake and doesn’t usually remember any of the terror. Kids who have nightmares might have an accident in bed and/or sleepwalk. Children usually stop having terrors after puberty. The cause for night terrors in adults’ is probably stress. You should go to a therapist if the terrors are especially scary or disturbing. Table of Contents:
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