Nightmares

540 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: a narrative essay on the worst nightmares

Nightmares
Usually when you end up drifting off to sleep, you fall into a deep sleep and begin to experience a so called dream.” However, most children, and even some adults, experience some even more terrifying so called dreams. These dreams are called nightmares. Nightmares have been occurring in people’s sleep for hundreds of years. People have been interested in them for centuries and they have quite an interesting past to them.
People used to believe that the dream anxiety attack was caused by a demon pressing up against a person’s chest during their sleep. They were even considered as a form of black magic, evil affiliation, and even sometimes possession.
The sleep cycle comes in a multi-stage cycle. All in all there are five cycles. The first four of the stages is where there is non-rapid eye movement (NREM). As the fifth stage occurs, that is where rapid eyes moment (REM) happens. Nightmares almost always occur in the second half of a persons sleep and it is always followed with an awakening of the individual even if the person doesn’t remember waking up during the night. Nine times out of ten, when people’s brain can’t handle what is going on during the rapid eye movement stage, they wake up very panically and are also very aware of their surroundings.
Nightmares are mostly referred to as being a younger persons trouble but you will find that a lot of adults have the problem of nightmares also. The children’s nightmare is very different than the adult’s because the adult’s nightmare is based on the persons fears such as being chased or attacked. The children’s nightmare is more of a fantasy nightmare. Anyone that has a high fever before they go to bed is more likely to suffer from a nightmare. Rapid eye movement will usually wake a person up if they can sense that something bad is going to happen. Most of the time when one has a nightmare, will wake up right before some really bad will happen. the most popular nightmare is when you are actually falling from something that is very high up in the air. It always ends by you waking up right before you are about to hit the ground.
It is been proved that no matter how many nightmares that one person will have, not one single nightmare will be exactly the same as any of the others.

Show More
Related

  • Probing Insanity in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

    2318 Words  | 5 Pages

    Everybody dreams during his lifetime. It is a part of human nature that we experience almost everyday. Dreams can be lost memories, past events and even fantasies that we relive during our unconscious hours of the day. As we sleep at night, a new world shifts into focus that seems to erase the physical and moral reality of our own. It is an individual's free mind that is privately exposed, allowing a person to roam freely in his own universe. As we dream, it seems that we cannot distinguish right from wrong or normal from abnormal and, therefore, commit acts that we would not have done in a realistic society. Perhaps Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, describes the nature of dreams best. He contemplates the definition of insanity by saying, "... May we not then sometimes define insanity as an inability to distinguish which is the waking and which is the sleeping life?" He is suggesting that our dreams display a sense of mindless behavior, and an insane person could be one who does not realize he is awake and thinks he is still dreaming. Alice, the main character in these two books, is caught in her own lapse of reality and sanity. She is engulfed in a mass of items and events that she has experienced in the real world that have conformed to the environment of her own imagination. They are brought to life in a distorted way in her imaginative world of Wonderland. Throughout these stories, Alice encounters characters and landscapes that are created from her own view on nature and the behavior of people as she knows it. Alice dreams of animals taking the roles of adults and a misshapen landscape of unusual foliage and shifting conditions in propo...

    Read More

  • Sleep, Dreams and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    The discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep suggested that sleep was not, as it was thought to be, a dormant state but rather a mentally dynamic one. Your brain is, in fact, very active in this state, almost to the level at which it is when a person is awake. Yet during this active stage in which most dreams occur, the movements of the rest of the body are completely stilled. To imagine this paralysis during dreams not occurring is a frightful image, since in many cases dreams are violent and active. When the neurotransmitters that control the movement of the body do not work properly the person develops REM sleep behavioral disorder (RBD).

    Read More

  • Lucid Dreams Research Paper

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    1It is fascinating to think that dreams are a succession of images, ideas, emotions and sensations that occur in the mind during certain time stages of sleep. Researchers have often discussed the content and purpose of dreams but cannot fully understand the meaning of them or the underlying message that are displayed in the unconscious state. What are dreams exactly? Dreams are the succession of images, ideas, emotions and sensations that occur when involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Dreaming mainly happens in the "rapid eye movement" REM stage of sleeping when the brain activity os high and resembles being awake. Sometimes dreams can happen during other stages of sleep. But these dreams tend to be less vivid and memorable and can vary from a few sec to 20-30 minutes. The average person has about three to five dreams a night. There are 6 common dreams states that everyone

    Read More

  • Causes Of Night Terrors

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    After about one and a half of hour after falling asleep, just before the REM phase at slow-wave sleep phase, night terrors usually happen. There is a solid family and genetic link for these terrors, and most often happen in several members of a family. Some negative emotional events, which affect your mind greatly, can cause sleep terrors as well, because night terrors often connected to anxiety and depressive disorders. When terrors happen, they could causes unresponsiveness, confusion, disorientation or amnesia temporarily; or dreamers, may do some dangerous actions. In the worst case, these terrors have serious and even fatal effects, when the dreamers try to escape from bed or to fight, which hurt dreamers consequently. These will affect the individual’s relationship with others as well.

    Read More

  • Reality is Like A Dream in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever experienced a dream or a nightmare that seemed like reality? Most people in the world today would say that they have. Although this realistic dream experience does not occur often, when it does, clear distinctions are hard to make between the dream and reality. Theories exist that explain dreams as our subconscious

    Read More

  • Dreams: The Mental Pictures

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is very important that people dream if they want to remain in good health. Sleepers can cycle through five stages of sleep continuously throughout the night, one of the most important being Rapid Eye Movement (REM). REM sleep can last for up to five minutes at a time, and is entered multiple times throughout sleep. On the other hand, the brain stem, which controls a person’s emotions, memory, and desires, is very active during sleep. However, the “reasoning brain” is shut down. A person’s brain also cuts off all signals from the senses and blocks messages sent to the muscles, which prevents someone from acting out his or her dreams (Andre-Clark). Dreams occur during the REM phase, the most restful time of sleep. For this reason, scientists have concluded that dreaming is beneficial to an individual’s health. Robert J. Hoss, author of Dream Language, states, “dreaming is...

    Read More

  • Nightmare And Night Terrors

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nightmares are defined as repeated awakenings from the major sleep period or naps with detailed recall of extended and extremely frightening dreams, usually involving threats to survival, security, or self-esteem. The awakenings generally occur during the second half of the sleep period also know as the REM stage of sleep (Psych Central, 2013). Nightmares affect all ages, but children seem to have such dreams more often. Nightmare disorder should not be confused with night terrors, for they have a different effect on the dreamer. Night terrors are episodes of panic and confusion, with difficulty walking or bringing to awareness, and of which the sufferer has no recollection (Kavanagh, 2010). Major differences between both is that nightmares are vivid images, while night terrors are feelings or emotions that can not be recollected. Also, as stated before, nightmares occur during the REM stage of sleep. In contrast, night terrors occur during the non-REM stage which happens within the first 3-4 hours of sleep. Although both nightmare and night terrors bring great discomfort to the individual, it is important to note that they are different disorders.

    Read More

  • Dreams And Night Terrors

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though what could be considered a nightmare varies from person to person. Referring to the dream mentioned in the previous paragraph, someone might not find the shadowed figure as frightening, but another might be terrified, waking up suddenly from fear. What most people confuse nightmares with are known as night terrors. However, these two concepts are very different. A night terror is a type of sleep disruption, but instead of being a dream like nightmares, night terrors are caused by the central nervous system being over aroused. This is because the system is still maturing. Children will sometimes gain the over-arousal trait from genetics, almost 80% of family members of the child experienced sleepwalking or another sleeping disorder. (Night 7). Night terrors can be hard to witness as parents but they are not connected to a worse medical problem. Night terrors are also rare compared to nightmares, and occur more with young children. They may disappear as the child gets older. Night terrors are also normally forgotten after they happen, while a child may remember a nightmare. Another difference is that night terrors take place at a different time than nightmares. “Night terrors happen during deep non REM sleep. Unlike nightmares (which occur during REM sleep), a night terror is not technically a dream, but more like a sudden reaction of fear that happens during the transition from one sleep phase to another” (Night 4). What the child is experiencing is their nervous system becoming so over aroused during a sleep phase, that the body reacts, causing a night terror. Another difference between nightmares and night terrors, humans can over time develop a nightmare disorder. “Nightmare disorder is referred to by doctors as a Parasomnia — a type of sleep disorder that involves undesirable experiences that occur while you 're falling asleep, during sleep or when you 're waking up” (Nightmare 1). This kind of disorder

    Read More

  • Dreams and Mysteries of the Mind

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    wake the sleeper up feeling axioms or fearful. Nightmares are usually causes of real life

    Read More

  • Unraveling the Intricacies of Dreams

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dreams are series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. Dreams occur during a certain stage of sleep known as REM. Several different psychologists, including Freud and Hobson, have studied dreams. Psychologists have provided many theories as to what dreams are and the meanings behind them.

    Read More

  • Nightmares: Post Traumatic Stress Disor

    276 Words  | 1 Pages

    Nightmares are dreams with extreme fear, horror, or anxiety. They affect people of all ages for many different reasons. Nightmares are often caused by one of three factors: stress, eating habits, or medication.

    Read More

  • Parasomnia

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    Arousal disorders are the most common type of parasomnia. These disorders include: confusional arousals, sleepwalking, sleep terrors and nightmares. Experts believe that each is related and share some symptoms. Essentially, they occur because a person is in a mixed state of being both asleep and awake, generally coming from the deepest stage of non-dreaming sleep. The individual is awake enough to act out complex behaviors, but asleep enough not to be aware of or remember them.

    Read More

  • Understanding the causes of nightmares

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Startled awake, hardly aware of reality, heart racing and drenched in sweat, people who suffer from nightmares are deeply affected by not being able to sleep in peace. Matters are made worse when the mare idea of going to bed to sleep starts the anxious cycle. Chronic nightmares can lead to sleep disruption and if not addressed they will develop into sleep disorders that require medical intervention.

    Read More

  • Freuds Interpretation of Dreams

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, let examined the definition of dream according to Sigmund Freud “dream is the disguised fulfilment of a repressed wish. Dreams are constructed like a neurotic symptom: they are compromises between the demands of a repressed impulse and the resistance of a censoring force in the ego” (Freud, 28). This simple means that all dreams represent the fulfilment of a wish by the dreamer. Dreams are the mind way of keeping an individual asleep and to digest and work out all that we have going on inside our brains, the negative, positive, fear and unclear thoughts and actions. This set the framework for dream work. Freud also stresses that even anxiety dreams and nightmares are expressions of unconscious desire. Freud further went on to say that, “the general function of dreaming is to fending off, by a kind of soothing action, external or internal stimuli which would tend to arose the sleeper, and thus of securing sleep against interpretation” (Freud, 28). With this, it shows that a dreamer can take apart his dream and analysis it, if he or she remembers, once conscious.

    Read More

  • Dreams While Sleeping and Reality

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the body sleeps, reality becomes replaced with the dream world, a fanciful place where the innermost being is found cowering like a creature vying to be freed. Some people have vivid dreams that are life-like; others cannot recall having dreamed. One concept is for sure, the dream world is one where the mind runs a free course. Images buried deep inside, thoughts avoided throughout the day, and unrealistic situations take hold. These images may turn into a peaceful dream of amazement and wonder, or they may take a frightening turn, dragging the mind into a state of horror and dread. The situations can become all too real, grasping at the outer edges of the mind, pushing the dream over the boundaries the body normally allows.

    Read More

More about Nightmares

Open Document