No. You may think you're rescuing your bedmate from misery, but rousing someone simply means he'll need several frustrating minutes (or longer) to calm down and get back to sleep. The truth is, nightmares are normal.
In most cases, said Dr. Krakow, a nightmare is mild, and in that situation, it's best not to wake the person who is having the nightmare. For example, if the person is simply tossing and turning, looking concerned and/or whispering to himself, leave him be. But nightmares vary in intensity.
Upon waking up from a nightmare, it's normal to be acutely aware of what happened in the dream, and many people find themselves feeling upset or anxious. Physical symptoms like heart rate changes or sweating may be detected after waking up as well.
It is generally not recommended to wake someone up from a night terror as this can cause them to become agitated and confused.
Start with a brief dose of empathy. Use some soothing words, “I'm sorry you got scared,” or a hug, and then return your child to his/her bed. Next, re-focus your child away from the memory of the nightmare, and on to something else. If you do this, soon your child will forget what the nightmare was about.
If you want to wake someone from a nightmare, do so gently, with a soft touch and soothing words. An alarm is a harsh way to start the day. Whether it's for you or someone else, why not enjoy a gentler wake-up experience? A study of alarm tones found that people overwhelmingly prefer waking up to music.
Indeed, studies suggest that nightmares are often linked to unmet psychological needs and/or frustration with life experiences. Yet those links aren't always easy to make—except in cases of trauma (discussed below), our nightmares tend to reflect our troubles through metaphor rather than literal representation.
"Nightmares probably evolved to help make us anxious about potential dangers," Barrett said. "Even post-traumatic nightmares, which just re-traumatize us, may have been useful in ancestral times when a wild animal that had attacked you, or a rival tribe that had invaded might well be likely to come back."
Indeed, we found that when people share dreams with each other, the person discussing their dream significantly increases their empathy towards the person they are sharing the dream with. There is much evidence that sleep benefits the processing of important and emotional memories.
The night hag or old hag is the name given to a supernatural creature, commonly associated with the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. It is a phenomenon during which a person feels a presence of a supernatural malevolent being which immobilizes the person as if sitting on their chest or the foot of their bed.
Sleep terrors differ from nightmares. The dreamer of a nightmare wakes up from the dream and may remember details, but a person who has a sleep terror episode remains asleep. Children usually don't remember anything about their sleep terrors in the morning.
Nightmares can be triggered by many factors, including: Stress or anxiety. Sometimes the ordinary stresses of daily life, such as a problem at home or school, trigger nightmares. A major change, such as a move or the death of a loved one, can have the same effect.
1. Being chased. Being chased is one of the most common nightmares. If you dream that you're being chased by something, whether it's an 8-foot-tall rabbit or a shrouded figure, then it's an indicator that you're running away from something or someone in real life.
Barrett says that in post-traumatic nightmares, the region of the brain involved in fear behaviors, including the amygdala, a structure deep in the brain that works to identify potential threats, may be overactive or overly sensitive.
How Long Do Nightmares Last? The average dream length of a nightmare can be 10-20 minutes while bouts of night terrors can be up to 45 minutes in length.
Impact of nightmares
Trauma-related nightmares generally occur during REM sleep, which is when we tend to have vivid dreams. When you wake up from these nightmares, you may experience fear, anxiety, panic, distress, frustration, or sadness. You can also wake up soaked in sweat and with your heart pounding.
If you can realize you're in a nightmare, the simplest way to stop it is to make yourself wake up, Arthuro said. But some evidence suggests that it's possible to stay in the nightmare but eliminate your fear by knowing you aren't in physical danger, according to Arthuro.
Nightmares about falling were followed closely by dreams about being chased (more than 63 percent). Other distressing nightmares included death (roughly 55 percent), feeling lost (almost 54 percent), feeling trapped (52 percent), and being attacked (nearly 50 percent).
Anxiety dreams are unpleasant dreams that cause distress. They can be more off-putting than nightmares and can result in you waking up panicked or nervous. These feelings of angst tend to remain in your mind throughout the next day.
A horrible dream about someone is sometimes an idea or thinking of your subconscious mind that is attempting to help you realize for yourself rather than the person you dreamed about.
When startled, the sleepwalker will act out in a manner like a fight or flight response. They may lash out or fall, which could injure them or the person waking them. According to Wright, it is best to gently encourage or lead a sleepwalker back to bed and let them get on with their night's rest.
Appearing agitated while asleep or after waking. Seeming inconsolable during or after a night terror. Appearing confused when awakened. Sleepwalking or getting out of bed.
Keep in mind that no matter how scary a nightmare is, it's not real and most likely won't happen to you in real life.
It's normal. In fact, 80 to 90 percent of adults may have experienced a nightmare in their lifetime. Nightmares are intermittent, or persistent recurring dreams that become so frightening they actually awaken the sleeper.