Nightmares in Adults

Nightmares in adults can be annoying, frightening, disturbing or traumatic. Waking from a nightmare can leave you feeling disoriented, disjointed and anxious. The details of nightmares are not as important as the intensity of them.

Nightmares in adults disturb their sleep.

Stress impacts adults in different ways. During the holiday season, financial stress can make you anxious about paying the bills, having enough left over for gifts and being able to celebrate the season. When different types of stress compound (stress over finances, stress at work, stress at home), nightmares may result. The nightmares may seem unrelated (racing to find a crying child in your house, but all the doors are locked) or right on target (watching your home burn down and being restrained from stopping it).

While sleep specialists study why we dream and the different types of dreams, they also accept that sometimes those dreams are not pleasant. When dreams are not pleasant, we call them nightmares.

Are nightmares simply a mental clear out for the subconscious? Are they a natural way to cope with residual fears suppressed during waking hours? Psychologists recognize that fear can cripple a person’s social and emotional ability to interact with their environment.

Persistent fear such as fear for one’s personal safety, personal well-being and personal security can wear you down. You cannot go to work every day and literally fear for keeping your job. It would inhibit your ability to work and function. We suppress these fears, whether they are right, wrong or indifferent and when we sleep, we can process those fears. One of the ways we process them is through nightmares.

Nightmares, like other dreams, occur during the REM or rapid eye movement phase of sleeping. This is a time when the mind is in an active, dreaming state and processing information. Details of the day may creep into your dreams or the details of things you didn’t want to think about and even thoughts you didn’t even know you had.

While nightmares are completely natural, it is possible that persistent or reoccurring nightmares can wake you up frequently or keep you awake. If your dreams have taken a sudden and dramatic change towards nightmares and the nightmares frequently disturb your sleep, you should consult a physician. Nightmares may be indicative of other neurological events. If you have persistent nightmares associated with headaches and daytime sleepiness, you should also consult your physician.

Common nightmares in adults include:

• Giving a presentation in the nude
• Being chased by another person or a faceless person
• Being pursued by an animal (nightmare in children)
• Drowning
• Profound loss or fear usually associated with a loved one or home
• Loss of the ability to speak, literally or figuratively, blindness, deafness or other debilitating condition or injury

Understanding what these types of nightmares mean to the person suffering from them can help reduce the frequency of the nightmares and improve the quality of sleep.

Beyond stress, nightmares in adults are commonly caused by:

• Bad food

Indigestion can actually contribute to the quality of your dreams.

• Medication

Medications can cause sleep disturbances and bad dreams. Some anti-depressants and smoke patches are known to cause nightmares. If you are taking medication and experiencing a sudden surge in nightmarish dreams, consult your physician.

• Sickness

A rise in body temperature can influence your dreams. Fever dreams are generally disturbing in nature and cause nightmares.

• Trauma

Traumatic events including those that happen far away can cause nightmares. After September 11th, 2001, prescriptions for sleep aids climbed in many parts of the United States because of profound or disturbing dreams.

Nightmares are natural and everyone experiences a nightmare now and again. If you are experiencing nightmares more than twice in a week or unable to sleep for fear of a nightmare, consult your physician.

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