In searching through my morning news I stumbled upon an article that I thought I’d share with you. It’s titled: Study: Women Experience More Nightmares as Compared to Men. At the British University of West England they did a study where 170 volunteers, and determined that the reason women have more nightmares than men is their fluctuating body temperature.
One of the things I found interesting in this article is that it says the nightmares most women experience are emotional. The author of the study suggested that these emotional nightmares prepare the brain for emotionally distressing events.
I also find it fascinating that nightmares are classified in three segments: “being hunted”, “Death of a loved one”, or “Weird and New Environments” what amuses me about this is that I probably could have come up with a nightmare classification very similar to this if I were to take the time to look into nightmares.
Dr Chris Idikowski, Director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, said, suggests that one of the reasons this study found more nightmares in women is that:
“Women always remember dreams more than men. They end up talking more about their mental life than men do so there’s more ability to remember. This fits in with what’s in the literature. Women’s sleep tends to be more disrupted and they have more insomnia. And more frequent wakening could cause them to pick up on the dream.”
Do you have a lot of nightmares? Do you wake up often at night? I enjoyed this article, it’s opened my eyes to things I hadn’t up to this moment considered.
What do you think?
September 17th, 2008 at 8:31 am
I would say that my dreams are 50/50 nightmares vs. happy dreams. But when they’re bad, they’re really, REALLY bad!
September 17th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I get up at least once a night about 2am. Longs years with children.
I have less nightmares than I used to. My last one was about taking care of a
little baby, that had dirty diaper that hadn’t been changed for a long time.
It was a difficult task trying to find a place and diaper.
September 17th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Told you a while back that I don’t experience nightmares anymore because of the tactics I learned about controlling dreams.
Now vivid dreams of new environments? Oh, yeah. Have plenty of those I could share. Told a few people about them. They tell me I’m an old soul and that I’m remembering places I’ve been in other lives. What life was I in when I had the dream about ascending stairs to a spacious empty room with a wood floor, a series of tall french windows with torn curtains, all open and the curtains blowing in the wind, night outside, light from the moon? I was comfortable in this setting but can’t figure out why. Maybe I really was there at some point or maybe that justifies my being a loner in real life.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Fold my Laundry Please, I think it’s interesting that you have about 50/50, to me I’d have to say that’s kind of high… I rarely have bad dreams, but when I do they’re related to one or two of these catagories, or so.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Carolyn, I have to agree about the power of controlling your own dreams. I’m not sure what to make out of your dreams about different places that come through so vivid. I have vivid dreams of locations too, but I like to think that there’s no chance that I fought dragons and swamp demons in a past life… you never know though.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Claudious, for dreams like those I’d have to ask you what you’ve been reading lately. Sorta Tolkien meets Conan the Barbarian … hmmm.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I used to have a horrible nightmares all the time, when I was younger…I barely have them now…every now and then. But to be honest I have a hard time remember what I have dreamt of, or even if I did dream at all…But I can say with 100% knowledge, I have not been sleeping well as of late…that may have something to do with a new FIRM mattress though.