“Nightmares a reflection of personal and societal issues” -Andrew Stansell (FGCU)

To fully grasp the concept of nightmares I needed to remember myself as a seven year old boy waking up from a terrible dream, I thought would never end.  Not only children have nightmares, anyone could have one.  Dreams alone are complicated, but nightmares put dreaming to a whole other level. So, what exactly is a dream or nightmare?  A dream is a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind. A nightmare is a very distressing dream which usually forces at least partial awakening.  The dreamer of a nightmare feels a number of disturbing emotions, the most common emotions being fear and anxiety.  The question on my mind is: Why do people get nightmares in the first place?

Nightmares are a reflection of stressful situations you have or had to deal with from your past or everyday life.  The nightmares of early childhood likely reflect the struggle to learn to deal with normal childhood fears and problems.  Many cases of nightmares come from people who have suffered a major traumatic event in their lives.  The losses of a loved one, a scary surgery, an accident or assault are all normal causes for nightmares.  Even combat veterans get nightmares due to bad memories of war.  Some people get nightmares just by being ill or having a fever. The possibilities seem to be endless.

Not all nightmares are caused by personal issues; you’d be surprised that a few man made items contribute to nightmares as well. I really thought nightmares were just personal issues, but after researching I see that in addition certain drugs and medications contribute to nightmares too.  It could be the intake of the medication/drug or the withdrawal from them.  Again, anxiety plays a big part in creating these nightmares, but I never thought prescription medication could. It doesn’t surprise me that hallucinogens are linked to nightmares; I’m sure many illegal drugs do cause nightmares. So, exactly what can be done about these nightmares?

            Nightmares won’t usually cause a threat to a person’s well being.  Most nightmares go away through time and age.  If medication and drugs are the cause of nightmares, meeting with a physician may be the key to solving your bad dreams.  If a child is having nightmares, talking them out with their parents could be of great help.  Not many people are disturbed by getting nightmares; some people see them as “just dreams”.  Again through time and age nightmares go away, even if you need some extra help. 

This entry was posted on 8. November 2009 at 01:40 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.