Nightmares
Haven’t you had those dreams that wake you up frightened in the middle of the night, breathing faster than usual and relieved that it was just a dream? It means that you probably had a nightmare. Many researchers distinguish a nightmare from a bad dream on the basis of the after effect, i.e., did it lead to awakening from sleep; however, it remains debatable. Nightmares are termed “scary dreams,” and dreams are often described as a combination of things happening around you and some past memories. Therefore, nightmares are referred to as just dreams involving an off-putting emotional response (the most frequent being fear, although people also report anger or sadness as the main emotion in their nightmare). They usually arise in the REM (rapid eye movement) part of sleep. Illustrated by Drishya Unnithan It's known that our sleep has five stages divided into REM and non-REM cycles. In the REM part, the brain is active and we have dreams full of narratives, characters, and plots. And...