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READ MORE: The man’s frightening dreams were a
indicator of a fatal neurological disorder
A study indicates that individuals residing with particular mental health issues might be susceptible to experiencing nightmares.
Researchers in
Texas
examined 116 college students regarding their propensity for experiencing nightmares.
Next, the group looked into how often people experience nightmares relates to their levels of neuroticism, tendency towards having more dreams, flexible mental borders, and heightened senses.
The
study found
individuals who often experience nightmares tended to have greater emotional instability.
sensitive to stress
as well as finding it difficult to manage their emotions.
These characteristics might lead people dealing with such issues to absorb stress internally and see their experiences appear as intense and disturbing visuals in their dreams.
Moreover, individuals with fragile psychological barriers—who struggle to distinguish between their feelings and actual events—might find it difficult to screen out disturbing visuals and sentiments during their slumber.
These characteristics have been associated with mental health conditions such as anxiety.
depression
, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this might clarify why individuals suffering from these issues
report frequent nightmares
.
Nevertheless, individuals who exhibited higher tendencies towards experiencing anxiety and guilt—those characterized as neurotic—did not show an increased likelihood of having nightmares compared to those without such traits.
William Kelly, the lead researcher and an associate professor at the University of the Incarnate Word in Texas, stated
PsyPost
‘It is not unusual to experience nightmares. It appears that certain tendencies can affect them.’
In our research, people who frequently experienced nightmares appeared more prone to having less distinct boundaries among different mental states. Additionally, they tended to be more susceptible to negative emotions and encounter these feelings in multiple ways.
‘It’s as if there is a tendency for an unpleasant mental event to spread across the mind in certain people, like a storm stirring disturbing imagery and emotions in dreams.’
The research team indicated that individuals who often have nightmares could go through a phenomenon known as ‘concretization.’ In this process, intangible mental occurrences transform into physical representations, like disturbing visuals during sleep.
These people might then have a higher tendency to absorb stress and convert it into troubling dreams.
Individuals who possess fragile mental defenses might find themselves encountering unsettling visuals during their sleep and could struggle to block these images out, resulting in bad dreams.
Moreover, the group discovered that individuals possessing sensory processing sensitivity — characterized by a heightened response to both internal and external stimuli — were not more prone to experiencing nightmares.
Kelly mentioned, “It was unexpected that sensory processing sensitivity didn’t correlate with nightmares like it had in earlier research, considering how closely it aligns with having fragile psychological borders.”
‘At present, we do not comprehend this discovery.’
The research had multiple constraints, primarily due to having a participant pool mainly consisting of college students. Consequently, the conclusions may not be applicable to individuals who are older or do not experience stress related to schooling.
The group expressed their desire to broaden the study by examining how nightmares affect various groups of people.
Kelly stated: “A significant portion of people, whether they have mental health issues or not, experience nightmares from time to time. Despite this, the reasons behind them still puzzle us.”
We’ve been trying to figure out which main psychological traits appear to affect whether someone experiences nightmares.
Read more