Once you go back and retrospect, you will realize they are simply reflecting your life and what you are currently going through. Here’re 10 common nightmares and what they might mean for you. Your Nightmares might surprisingly be trying to hint you at something you have been long ignoring.Īnalyzing the meaning of nightmares is not too difficult when you know the key themes and compare them with your current life incidents. Nightmares come in different forms and shapes having very distinct themes, contexts, feel, and varying vividness. (1) Some of the researchers believe that nightmares are categorically an individual experience and hence is better left for the participants to describe. Hartmann (1984) defined a nightmare as a long, frightening dream that awakens the sleeper, and awakening from a frightening dream has been used as an operational definition of nightmares by others. Some dreams will actually leave you grinning when you wake up, wishing to go back to sleep to complete it.Ī nightmare, on the other hand, has an aversive nature – no one really feels gratified, pleased or pacified after experiencing a nightmare. Unlike nightmares, dreams are not only imageries that have a horrific or fear-evoking element in it.ĭreams can be soothing, based on wish-fulfillment, fun, romantic, and sometimes bizarre, disturbing or frightening. Read Interpreting Your Dreams: What Messages Dreams Give You About Your Life How is a nightmare different from dreams?ĭreams are images and sensations created by our subconscious mind with the help of the information we perceive in our waking life. Exposure to disturbing fiction & scary movies, books etc before bed.Hyperarousal & impaired fear extinction.Some other causes of nightmares according to research are:

Nightmares & dreamscapes battleground