The Hidden Meaning of Nightmares
The mere mention of his name is synonymous with anxiety, fear, startle, and sometimes even terror. No, it's not about the driver's license exam. Nor is it about finding out your baccalaureate results. A clue? It's possible to relive sometimes intense moments in our minds. As you've guessed, it's the nightmare we're referring to here. Or rather nightmares, as they are so numerous and so different from one person to another. In the family of dreams, they are not the most popular, and even less so the most pleasant companions of our nights. Yet they are unavoidable: we all have them, even if we don't always remember them! So we know what a nightmare looks like, but do we really know what it is? And why do we have nightmares? Aren't we, in fact, the unfortunate heroes of a film that plays out without our knowledge, and most often at our expense? Close your eyes. Silence. We're shooting...
Nightmares: The Making of
Everyone has nightmares, from a very young age until the end of their lives. Just like "good" dreams, sometimes we remember our nightmares, other times we don't. But how do we define a nightmare? Is it a bad dream? Yes, a nightmare is actually a bad dream... from which we wake up! The nuance is there: the nightmare is an unfinished, incomplete bad dream , which often ends with us waking up with a start. And it's no coincidence that we have nightmares. This film, which often has a trying and thrilling scenario for its hero (yes, you, the sleeper!), is in fact prepared by our unconscious for a very specific purpose. It's not for nothing that we experience all these adventures in our nightmares!
Indeed, our brain works and rethinks scenes from reality during our bad dreams in order to prepare us to face difficult situations when we wake up. Nightmares simulate threats so that we can better neutralize them. This is what Dr. Tore Nielsen demonstrated in a 2008 study 1 : "normal dreams fulfill a fear extinction function and nightmares reflect failures in the regulation of emotions." Nightmares are therefore useful! They are a clever mix of fears and reassuring elements concocted by an outstanding scriptwriter: our brain. Just as another study revealed in Switzerland 2 , nightmares simply prepare us to face threats and adversity in real life, as soon as we wake up, this time with the courage and strength of a superhero!
While scientists are increasingly delving into nightmares and their meanings, the fact remains that they still retain a great deal of mystery. This is a good thing, as mystery is an essential ingredient for the success of a good script!
And the nominees for Best Screenplay are…
In addition to its cathartic function , nightmares can have several very different causes, such as recent anxiety, an old memory, post-traumatic shock, and even certain physiological problems (chronic pain, illnesses, etc.). In addition, a study file dating from 1999 3 highlights that the use of certain medications, such as antidepressants or sedatives, can also cause bad dreams or nightmares. Therefore, the causes are varied, as are the scenarios that result from them!
Our brains are not lacking in imagination when it comes to making us experience strong emotions (sometimes too many!) while we sleep. Among the hit parade of recurring nightmares , we can cite being in free fall (work overload?), being lost or trapped (difficult choices to make?), finding yourself naked in public (a classic of the genre!), or even failing an exam like the baccalaureate or the driving test (hey, here they are again!). The scenarios are multiple and can reveal different anxieties or fears, as we mentioned previously. However, a 2014 study 4 published online on the very reputable website Sleep reveals that "Physical aggression was the most frequently reported theme in nightmares, while interpersonal conflicts predominated in bad dreams." Not sure that this scenario deserves an Oscar nomination, however...
There are many studies on the causes of nightmares and their meanings, and they are sometimes contradictory. However, they all agree on identifying a link between our real lives and our nightmares . We are only actors in a sometimes merciless or incredible scenario, and even if they sometimes wake us up abruptly, we cannot deny their usefulness in helping us overcome some of our limits or fears when it is time to wake up. We also sometimes win the Oscar for the most incredible story to tell to those around us the next day!
Sources:
[1] Nightmares, Bad Dreams, and Emotion DysregulationA Review and New Neurocognitive Model of Dreaming , Tore A Nielsen, Ross Levin, “ Current Directions in Psychological Science ”, April 2009 [2] Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis , Virginie Sterpenich, Lampros Perogamvros et al, “ Human Brain Mapping vol 41 , February 2020 [3] Drug-induced nightmares , DF Thompson, DR Pierce, “ The Annals of pharmacotherapy ”, January 1999 [4] Thematic and Content Analysis of Idiopathic Nightmares and Bad Dream , Geneviève Robert, Antonio Zadra, “Sleep”, February 2014
