Causes of nightmares, nightmares are one of the most annoying things that happen to us in our daily lives and may affect our concentration, whether at work or study, and the recurrence of nightmares may cause disorders, and the topics of nightmares vary from person to person and nightmares may recur and may occur rarely, but they cause a lot of inconvenience, and we will explain in this article the causes of nightmares and how to treat them, as well as their symptoms and everything related to them so that the person is aware of everything that happens to him during the occurrence of nightmares.
What is the nightmare
- A nightmare is one of the dreams that occurs to an individual during his sleep but is associated with negative factors such as fear, anxiety, or mental illness.
- Nightmares are more common in children but can occur at any age.
- The nightmare begins in children when they reach the age of three and decreases when they reach 10 years.
- Nightmares occur more often for girls than boys in youth and adolescence, and may last a lifetime until death.
- Scientific research and studies indicate that up to 1% of adults suffer from repeated nightmares, forcing them to seek help from doctors and specialists.
- A nightmare can be considered a message from the body that it is exhausted, especially in light of the many things that an individual is exposed to in daily life.
Symptoms of nightmares
Nightmares may occur permanently or rarely in a person and may come on the day more than once, causing discomfort to the individual and may lead to the possibility of difficulty returning to sleep again, and there are some symptoms of the nightmare, which are as follows:
- The nightmare is hugely disturbing, especially when retrospective.
- The nightmare appears as real and obvious and this is one of the most important mysteries of the causes of nightmares.
- The story of the nightmare is always associated with the story of survival, safety threats, or any other topic that causes inconvenience.
- A nightmare can lead to a state of anxiety, sadness, or horror.
- A nightmare causes an individual to wake up from sleep.
- A nightmare may cause an increased heartbeat and heavy sweating.
- A nightmare may lead to tightness and tension that prevents him from falling asleep again.
The most common types of nightmares
There are many types of nightmares, and we will list the most famous of them as follows:
- Murder is a very difficult dream, as the sleeper feels that he is fighting for his life.
- Falling teeth and this is interpreted as there is anxiety within the human being about aging.
- The end of the world is a signal that the subconscious mind feels that everything has changed in life and it is time to start over.
- Drowning is the most common and is annoying and indicates a feeling of emotional exhaustion significantly.
Are nightmares considered disturbances?
Nightmares cannot be considered among the disorders in case of suffering from some things, which are as follows:
- Some problems with memory or concentration.
- Constantly thinking about what happened in the nightmare.
- Repeat the nightmare more than once.
- Shortening in the daily functioning of the individual in his life.
- Anxiety and fear of other nightmares causing the inability to sleep again.
- Difficulty dealing with many situations in the community, at work or at school.
- Changing the behaviors of the person who feels a nightmare related to sleep schedules or fear of the dark.
- Daytime sleep due to weakness and fatigue.
- This can lead to nightmare disorder, which leads to a significant impairment in parents’ ability to sleep or feel rested.
- If these disorders occur and recur, you should visit a doctor for examination and treatment.
Causes of nightmares
Although the real cause of nightmares is not known, there are many factors and disorders that are considered causes of nightmares, as follows:
- The pressures of daily life, which are represented by problems, whether at school, home or work.
- Changes and transformations in life such as the death of people or their distance from the person are one of the causes of nightmares.
- Feeling anxious and stressed is one of the most common causes of nightmares.
- Being subjected to an accident, sexual assault, beating, or any traumatic event that may cause a disturbance in the psychological state of the individual
- People with developmental disorders and dysfunctions have nightmares permanently.
- Changing sleep schedules and irregular waking times.
- Waking up more than once a day and not getting enough rest.
- Insomnia is a major factor that causes nightmares significantly and is one of the most serious causes of nightmares.
- Get some medications that cause nightmares, such as blood pressure medications, antidepressants, Parkinson’s medications, and medications to help quit smoking.
- Substance addiction leads to many mental health disorders causing nightmares.
- Having cancers and heart disease paves the way as one of the causes of nightmares.
- Watch scary movies and read scary books.
- Eating just before bed raises body temperature, causing the brain to become very active, causing an increased likelihood of nightmares.
- Drinking too much alcohol increases nightmares, especially for those who are addicted to drinking, and it is a major cause of nightmares.
- Nightmares increase if someone in the family has a history of nightmares or sleep disorders.
How to avoid nightmares
The causes of nightmares may be avoided before they occur or for fear of their occurrence, and there are some ways to give comfort and stay away from the occurrence of nightmares according to the reasons, which are as follows:
- Discuss with doctors if an individual gets medication that causes disturbing nightmares.
- Avoid eating more than three hours before bed in order to address the causes of nightmares.
- Facing fears significantly because this provides psychological support and treating or avoiding the problem before it occurs, and these fears include flying or fear of heights.
- Get rid of any negative thoughts before heading to bed.
The most difficult form of nightmare
- When going to sleep, a person waits to feel comfortable, reassured and relaxed, but unfortunately there are many people around the world who cannot see rest during their sleep or cannot sleep significantly.
- This is not because of any health problems but because of a lot of mental exhaustion that occurred after a lot of mental exertion.
- This may be caused by sleep paralysis, one of the worst nightmares in the world, which makes a person unable to live by nature during sleep or feel suffocated at the moment of sleep.
Sleep paralysis
- This paralysis occurs in the case of a person suffering from a feeling of a permanent recurring nightmare, where he feels that there is a person on his body or above his head while he is sleeping.
- The sleeping person wants to wake up and get him away from above him, but he cannot do so, as at this moment he feels paralyzed sleep.
- This paralysis makes the sleeping person unable to control his body in any way, and some people feel many violent tremors as a result, which may cause the bed to move from its place due to permanent movement.
- The explanation of this nightmare may vary in many cultures, there is an Arab culture that calls it “jathoum” and this means that there is something heavy that makes a lamb.
- The person suffering from this nightmare must read many verses of the Qur’an in order to immunize against demons that can materialize in the form of something heavy on top of any sleeping person.
- While in Western cultures, this type of nightmares occurs in the form of a woman who appears in a dream, the sleeping person sees her sitting violently on his chest, which makes him unable to do anything towards her, and he cannot push her away from above him and remains like this all night as if she wants to kill him, according to the stories that were told by people who suffered from this nightmare before.
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Suffocation kills the sleeper
- This type of nightmare happens to people with associated health problems such as movement and speech problems as well as difficulty breathing.
- It is more common for people who feel suffocated during sleep as if they are dying, and others have hallucinations during sleep.
- Even now, science stands helpless to devise any cure or drug for this type of nightmares.
Nightmare treatment at home for adults
Many people who have a nightmare disorder may turn to doctors, but there are some home remedies that must be followed in order to treat the nightmare, which are as follows:
- Exercise permanently in the event that the individual feels tension that may lead to the destruction of his life, and exercise may begin through exercise and walking in the morning, and then some periods of rest are obtained during the day in order to give the body a good relaxation state.
- Regulate eating by reducing meals and eating fruits and foods such as bananas, almonds, walnuts and kiwi, and you must eat early and not late before bedtime in order to get a quiet sleep, because late eating is one of the causes of nightmares.
- Reduce watching scary movies that appear to the individual in a dream and make him suffer from nightmares and may have to wake up at night and not take enough sleep.
- Stay away from foods that contain a large proportion of spices and pickles, which are digested hard and may lead to raising the metabolic rate in the body, which makes the body need a great effort in order to digest food, and this leads to increased activity in the brain and increases the chance of exposure to nightmare.
- Imagine better ends to the nightmare in order for a person to relax and be able to calmly endure the nightmare and consider it just a dream, that is, if he meets a monster in a dream that follows the individual, it is possible to imagine that he befriends him instead of fearing him and running away.
- Setting a distinctive routine that makes the individual able to relax until bedtime comes, such as reading books, sitting in a warm bathtub before bed, or assembling puzzle pieces.
- Do exercises for meditation, relaxation and deep breathing, which turns the bedroom into a quiet and suitable place to sleep, which prevents the causes of nightmares.
Nightmare treatment at home for children
- There are some methods that parents should follow in order to treat the nightmares that their children feel at home, in addition to the previous methods that we referred to in the past period, and these methods are as follows:
- If a child has nightmares, parents should provide them with reassurance and be calm and patient in order to prevent nightmares from occurring in the future.
- Talk to the child about the dream, what happened in it, why it was terrifying, and then calm him down and tell him that these nightmares will not hurt him because they are not real.
- Encourage the child to draw the picture of the nightmare and talk to any character he meets there or record the nightmare and write about it in a notebook, which makes him live in a world of creativity that keeps him away from thinking about the danger of the nightmare.
- Control the child’s stress that results from the disturbing nightmare.
- Providing comfort for the child, that is, if he feels comfortable in the case of sleeping next to his small toy or wearing a specific robe or any object that causes him comfort, this must be done without any hesitation.
- Leave the door to the child’s room open during the night so that he does not feel lonely and the child during sleep may need to calm down.
- Leaving a repairman lit at night so that if the child wakes up from sleep, he finds the light, feels reassured, eliminating the causes of nightmares.
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Treating the nightmare medically
When the feeling of nightmares increases, the doctor is resorted to in order to obtain the necessary treatment for this condition, and this treatment is related to the following things:
- If the nightmares are caused by a medical condition, this suggests that the problem should be treated medically.
- In the event of a psychological condition such as anxiety and tension that triggers the emergence of nightmares, the doctor may apply some treatment methods in order to reduce stress or give him stress treatment.
- Getting imaginative retrospective therapy that is helpful for people with nightmare disorder and this treatment involves changing the end that the individual has seen in the dream and that is causing a significant threat to them.
- The new ending in the dream is then restored to ensure that the recurrence of nightmares is minimized again.
- Some medications may be given in order to treat nightmares, but in the case of acute and severe nightmares and if the nightmares are repeated more than once.
Verses that prevent nightmares
- The former Arab Grand Mufti of the Republic of Egypt, Dr. Ali Gomaa, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said that the nightmares that occur to man come from the devil, contrary to many of the true divine vision.
- Dr. Ali Gomaa pointed out in a video he broadcast on his official page on social networking sites that there are some verses that must be read when the nightmare occurs continuously or disturbing dreams occur, which are the last four verses of Surat Al-Kahf.
- The former mufti continued his speech and said that this advice has been passed down for a long time by ancient sheikhs and Muslim scholars that reading these verses before bed every day makes a person’s sleep free of any nightmares.
- The finals of Surat Al-Kahf say, ” Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds – they will have the Gardens of Paradise as a lodging, Wherein they abide eternally. They will not desire from it any transfer. Say, “If the sea were ink for [writing] the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought the like of it as a supplement.” Say, “I am only a man like you, to whom has been revealed that your god is one God. So whoever would hope for the meeting with his Lord – let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone.” “
In this article, we talked about the causes and symptoms of nightmares, how to avoid and treat them, whether at home or when consulting a doctor in difficult cases, as well as Quranic verses that protect against nightmares, and we can say that nightmares are an internal matter that occurs as a result of some disorders and internal problems and the psychological state, whether in adults or in children as a result of the loss of people, accidents or any other matter.
