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 the usual dreams of falling come in the non-REM cycle. Oneirology, the study of dreams, is still trying to pinpoint the basis of dreams related to an intermingling of our memories. 


Illustrated by Drishya Unnithan

Nightmares, as per sleep scientists, are also described as a way of releasing stress or anxiety by the brain; however, if this were true, people would feel better after a nightmare, which isn’t the case. Although, nightmares can be an indication of stress or anxiety. Having nightmares is normal; however, when recurring nightmares occur it's wise to consult a doctor than to believe it's just a connection to your multiversal self.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mystery of memory

-
Image
Do you ever wonder why you remember certain things very clearly, some very faintly, and some things not at all? Some childhood or past experiences just stick with us whereas others just don’t bother to stay in our brains for long.  Illustrated by Drishya Unnithan In simple terms, anything to be stored in our brain as memory has to pass via “memory compartments” for the brain to judge if it is even important to keep for a long time or not. This judgment is mostly based on how important or effective the thing is or how it affected us, though many other reasons remain unknown. Memory is broadly classified as short-term and long-term. However, many more subtypes are known depending on the experience and category the memory belongs to. For example, things that you remember about yourself are referred to as “autobiographical memory, ” and “working memory”  comes into action when you are listening to a thriller story while trying to figure out who the killer is.  Illustrated by ...
Read more

Insomnia

-
Sleeping is a vital activity to keep our mental and physical being healthy. Not getting adequate sleep can lead to many chronic diseases, one of them characterized as insomnia. Although “insomnia” is a commonly used word, it’s clinically diagnosed using polysomnography, which is a series of tests to understand different parameters of sleep. It is a gold standard for diagnosing sleep-related disorders. Insomnia is identified with hyperarousal symptoms i.e., irritability, risky or destructive behavior, elevated flight-or-fight response, and difficulty concentrating and sleeping. They are often divided into day and night-time symptoms. Studies have shown that personality traits like being self-critical, and suppressing emotions – basically unhealthy emotion regulation – along with neurobiological and genetic dysfunction are considered predisposing factors of insomnia. Mostly, stressful life events along with predisposing factors can lead to insomnia. Majorly, most of us get acute insomnia...
Read more

Science vs Pseudoscience

-
Image
Remember those days, when the first question in the exam was,  “What is Science?” And we would just think and think, and write the definition we learned by rote. Most of us probably don’t even remember that definition now, but if someone asked you today what is science? Can you define it?  The term that is so commonly used but yet a bit tricky to explain, right? In simple terms, anything that you observe and can be proved by experiments becomes science. But the problem with this definition is the question: “so what you can’t observe or prove is not science then?” Because science does not have these clear defined limits, it creates a loophole, which gives rise to concepts like pseudoscience.  Illustrated by Drishya Unnithan Pseudoscience comprises beliefs, notions, practices that occur in the world in the name of science without actually being fact or evidence based. For example, a very popular trend that is coming up where anyone claims to have produced a “Covid-19 treati...
Read more