Bad dreams

I tend to have dreams on a regular basis when I sleep. I kind of enjoy them. However, the last two nights, I have had bad dreams. Every once in a while, I will have a bad dream but rarely back-to-back like this. I woke up from them, both nights, in a panic and with my bed coverings...well...not on the bed. Frustrating as can be. And I won't tell you what they were about but I'll give you the subject heading: work.

Upon doing a little research as to why people have bad dreams, I came across these things.

One website lists six major reasons why people have bad dreams. At the top, anxiety and stress. However, they claim that this is primarily linked to stemming from a traumatic life event such as witnessing something horrific or the loss of a loved one. The second reason is spicy foods. This one surprised me. They cite a study done with men who ate spicy food before bed on some evenings and did not on others. The study indicates that the nights they ate the spicy food, they spent more time awake and got less restful sleep. The explanation they provide is that spicy foods can elevate the body's temperature, thus yielding disruption in sleep. (Though, I'm thinking it was probably heartburn that kept them up.) Thirdly, the fat-content of foods. Through a study not named, the research indicated that the higher fat content you consume throughout the day, the greater the chance your sleep will suffer (both quantity and quality). A second study showed that those who ate organic food had different dreams than those who ate "junk food". (I might argue two different kinds of people with different mind sets on life, etc, will have differing dreams.)

Next up, alcohol. They cite that drinking, particularly in excess, can lead to nightmares. Although alcohol can help you get to sleep initially, the long-term effects will cause you to wake up before you should, thus robbing you of restful sleep. To chase down the alcohol, we have drugs next. Some particular types (such as: antidepressants, barbiturates and narcotics) can have nightmares as a side effect. A study done a couple of years ago used Ketamine (anesthetic and recreational drug) and a placebo and monitored what people reported as their dreams. Ketamine increased the likelihood of bad dreams and "dream unpleasantness". The last reason is illness. They say that illnesses, particularly accompanied with a fever, can trigger nightmares.

Well, I have not experienced a traumatic event, in recent history, that would account for these things. I don't like spicy foods, the fat-content of my foods is not very high, I don't drink alcohol nor use any of the drugs listed (or any other recreational drugs, for that matter) and I'm not sick.

This report did not satisfy my need for figuring out why people experience bad dreams. Though some of the reasons they stated make sense to me (alcohol, drugs), some (like the spicy foods) don't. I don't believe the research was conducted in a way to eliminate extraneous variables (like heartburn that can be associated with spicy foods). (I have never really had a problem with heartburn but Jon has. And I know that he is miserable throughout the night with it, particularly when it affects his sleep.) I found a report on FoxNews.com that reveals the results of a study that answers why we have bad dreams.

Dreams, by default, are bad according to a psychologist at Yeshiva University in New York. Dreams (of any kind) occur during REM sleep. When studies are done about the brain during sleep activity (apart from this study), it is shown that parts of the limbic system (which, in part, help to regulate emotion and memory) are extremely active. In nightmares, they say that the dreamer wakes up and disrupts normal emotional processing. The study authors state that waking up may be a relief for the moment but in the long run, it serves to reinforce the idea that the threat was real.

Nightmares are normal for people to have...occasionally. The study above indicates (through other research) that approximately 85% of adults experience at least one per year and that they tend to occur during times of high stress (unrelated to a traumatic event).

Personally, I will suggest that I am currently stressed out by school. It is getting down to the wire here. Only 13 days of class remain in the semester before exams. Papers, projects, presentations, exams -- you name it, I probably have it due within the next few weeks. The fact that this is the next-to-last semester before I finish undergrad is probably not helping right now. I want to get it all finished and be done with it! But, deciding what to do, where I should be, etc, when I finish is another thing that I have to figure out within the next few months. If I don't, well, I'll be stressed even more.