5. Why Do We Have Nightmares

Nightmares blaze through our minds, vivid and frightening, making our hearts pound. And unlike ordinary dreams, nightmares usually awaken us. Some distinct moment of panic or fear jolts us into consciousness and out of the vile nightmare.

Young children between the ages of 5 and 10 experience regular nightmares. Fortunately, most will outgrow them. Still, everyone experiences a nightmare now and then, and some people get a lot of nightmares to the extent that they are diagnosed with dream disorder. Sometimes, nightmares are an indication of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

It’s thought that the most common causes of nightmares are trauma and stress. But what makes them so chilling enough to wake us out of deep sleep? Two different regions of our brains could shed some light to this:

REM sleep provides the setting for the most vivid dreams and nightmares. It’s a sleep stage which is both deep and active. During REM, our limbic systems (brain’s centre of emotion) get into a frenzy of activity. At the same time, our prefrontal cortex (brain’s centre of logic and reasoning) snoozes off. So, you are at a stage where you have wide-awake emotions but dormant thinking. No wonder you can dream about the most outrageous things and just shrug them off.

Aside from stress and trauma, nightmares can also be caused by: