Dreams and Nightmares That Recur

Some people have a specific dream or nightmare that occurs over and over again and the reason for this is the subject of investigation of a new study.

Calvin Kai-Ching Yu out to analyze not only what dreams are most common, but also what dreams recur regularly, reports Discovery News.

Sleep Talking, Sleep Terrors, Nightmares, sleep, Parasomnias, NREM, deep sleep
Sleep Talking, Sleep Terrors and Nightmares are sleep disorders, that commonly occur in children

The most common dream is being chased. Teeth falling out, losing control of a vehicle, flying and not being able to find a toilet make up about half of the most commonly recurring dream themes.

But dreams also have a darker side. Traits common in psychotic and schizophrenic patients, such as delusions of grandiosity, persecution and religion, are very common in dreams.

In fact, delusions such as "being tracked" and "becoming a celebrity" occurred more prevalently than common dream motifs such as "teeth falling out" and the classic "being nude."

REM Behavior Disorder
REM Behavior Disorder (RBD) is a sleep disorder in which the person acts out dramatic or violent dreams during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.

Yu also found that over 80 percent participants had the age-old school/teacher/studying trope. Over half of the sample also repeatedly dreamed of "searching for a certain place" and "falling."

"Eating delicious foods" was the fifth most regularly dreamed theme, higher ranked than flying or being chased.

Turn Your Worst Nightmares into Beautiful Dreams
Researchers have suggested a method by which we can turn our scariest nightmares into happy dreams so that we can go back to sleep peacefully.

The study found that dream prevalence, recurrence and regularity do not always correspond. On the contrary, most had never dreamed of being physically attacked, but those who had were regularly dreaming of it. Likewise, "teeth falling out" rated significantly higher on regularity than on prevalence or recurrence.

One half of participants had dreamt of having a love affair with a celebrity. Romance trumps sex here, because only 22 percent dreamed of having a sexual relationship with a celebrity.

Source-ANI

Dreams and Nightmares That Recur - Why?