A dream which frightens the dreamer.
Dream that arouses feelings of fear, terror, panic, or anxiety.
A frightening dream that often causes the dreamer to awaken. Nightmares come during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep in the middle and later parts of the night. A nightmare can be a reaction to a medication, a scary movie, or a disturbing experience, such as a death of a loved one, accident, imprisonment, or war experiences. The nightmare will often clearly be remembered later if the dreamer has fully awakened. Nightmares are common for adults. A specific link between dreams and psychiatric illness has not been shown.
Terrifying dreams. Throughout history, many superstitions have attached themselves to nightmares, which have been regarded as punishments, previews of frightful future events, or the effects of visitations by demon’s or other unwholesome characters. During the Middle Ages, many Europeans believed that bad dreams were caused by a demon squatting on a sleeper’s chest, creating a sense of suffocation thus “nightmares,” from the German mara, a word meaning “crusher.” The feeling of having a crushing weight upon the chest is common among victims of nightmares, as is the paralysis that persists briefly following awakening.
The precise nature of the beings who menace people in their sleep has varied over time, but their purposes are nearly always malign. Sometimes the nocturnal attackers have been supposed to be vampires, subsisting on the victim’s blood or life force. The Roman Incubus (from the Latin term for nightmare, incubo) was a demon in male form that lay with women and occasionally fathered children by them; its ostensibly female counterpart, the succubus, lay with men.
A distressing and vivid dream, occasionally accompanied by feelings of breathlessness. Nightmares typically manifest during the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase in the latter portions of the night, and they might be easily recollected if the individual fully wakes up during the nightmare’s occurrence.
Nightmares are notably prevalent among children aged eight to ten, often arising when the child is ill or feeling anxious. Among adults, nightmares can be triggered by specific medications, such as beta-blockers and benzodiazepines. Recurring nightmares might be linked to traumatic encounters, although there isn’t a direct correlation with psychiatric disorders.
Nightmares must not be mistaken for hypnagogic hallucinations, which happen during the process of falling asleep, or for night terrors, which take place during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and are not recalled upon awakening.
A distressing dream that induces anxiety. The term originates from Mara, the Norse God, believed to strangle individuals in their sleep. Some children experience low blood sugar while sleeping, leading to nightmares as a result of hypoglycemic episodes. The solution involves adding extra sugar to their evening meal. This condition is also known as incubus.