Dreams and Sleep Disorders

Dreams and Sleep Disorders

General information about dreams

Dreaming is essential for our health and well-being as it helps to recharge our mind and revitalize our body. According to scientists those who are deprived from entering the dream phase of sleep the next day exhibit symptoms of irritability, lack of concentration and anxiety and were depressed and quick tempered.

During the dream stage we have feelings, even though we are asleep, which differ from person to person and are representative to our emotional situation at the time being. Generally, it’s reported that negative feelings like anxiety, fear and abandonment are more often found in dreams than positive feelings like joy, happiness, euphoria and fulfilment.

Types of dreams:

Daydreams: Daydreaming occurs when you are semi-awake. It is the spontaneous imagining or recalling of various images or experiences in the near past or present. Positive daydreaming is healthy. It serves as a temporary escape from the demands of reality.

False awakening dreams: This type of dreams is when we think we have woken up and started our daily routine and suddenly we really wake up and realise that we are just dreaming. That sensation is referred to as a false awakening.

Lucid dreams: Lucid dreams occur when you realize you are dreaming. They give you the ability to control your own dreams and steer them towards the direction you want. In the lucid state you are more willing to confront threats and, as a result, become more self confident. Lucid dreams can help you visualize and rehearse an event in your mind before it actually occurs. It helps to overcome fears and anxieties. Most dreamers wake themselves up once they realize that they are dreaming while other dreamers have cultivated the skill to remain in the lucid state of dreaming.

Nightmares: Nightmares are known for their frightening and emotional content. We usually wake up in fear in the middle of a nightmare. Because of theirs frightening nature they have a bigger impact on our mind and we are more likely to remember the images and the vivid details of our nightmares the next day. But why do we have nightmares? One reason is that it’s a way for our unconscious to get our attention about a situation or problem that we have been avoiding.

Recurring dreams: Recurring dreams are a really common type of dreams. The repetition of a same theme in dreams forces us to pay attention and confront the dream because they are usually about problems, fears or personal weaknesses.

Healing dreams: Healing dreams serve as messages for the dreamer with regard to their health. Many dream experts believe that dreams can help avoiding potential health problems and healing when you are ill. Our bodies are able to communicate to our mind through dreams so the dreams can show us that something is not quite right with our bodies even before any physical symptom shows up and protect us.

Prophetic dreams: Prophetic dreams- also referred to as precognitive or psychic dreams- are dreams that seemingly foretell the future. A rational explanation to that dreams may be that our dreaming mind is able to piece together information and facts that we may normally overlook when we are awake and actually knows what’s going to happen in the future before our mind realise it.

Epic dreams: Epic dreams are so fascinating and astonishing that they remain in our mind for years. These dreams possess much glory and contain many archetypal symbols. When we wake up from such a dream it feels like a life-changing experience.

Mutual dreams: We have a mutual dream when two people have the same dream in the same time period. They usually happen between friends or relatives that confront the same problem or difficulty at this period of time. It is also said that twins are able to communicate and sometimes have mutual dreams.

Dream Structure

Everyone has its own way of dreaming but there are some characteristics and structures in dreams that are common for everyone. The scenery consists of bright or dull colours, black and white themes, shades, blurred figures, unidentified voices and sounds. Facts, characters and locations are blended into each other and connected in a bizarre and unexpected way but most of the time reflective of our personal memories and experiences.

Common dream themes

There are some common dreams that everyone had experienced before. A common theme is when we see that we are naked in our dream. Nudity symbolizes a variety of things depending on our real life situation. We may be hiding something and are afraid that others can find it out or we are fearful of being ridiculed and disgraced. Dreams running from or to something stem from feeling of anxiety in our life and the fear of being attacked. Falling teeth are also very common. Some theories are that dreams about our teeth reflect our anxieties about our appearance and how others perceive us, the fear of being embarrassed and also a sense of powerlessness. Flying in our dreams is representative of our own personal sense of power. We either feel strong, powerful, undefeatable and able to do anything we want or anxious and afraid about falling. In the end, when we see us falling it is an indication of insecurities, instabilities, and anxieties. Moreover it may reflect a sense of failure or inferiority in some circumstance or situation.

Sleep Disorders

Somnipathy or as it is more commonly known sleep disorder is a medical disorder of the sleep patterns of a person or an animal. Some of them are serious enough to interfere with normal physical, mental and emotional functioning. These disorders can cause a variety of problems from teeth grinding to night terrors.

Sleep problems can be cause by various factors. Although causes may differ, the end result of all sleep disorders is that the body’s natural cycle of slumber and daytime wakefulness is disrupted or exaggerated. Most common factors that can cause sleep problems are:

• Physical
• Medical
• Psychiatric
• Environmental

Other factors that can interfere with sleep include:

• Genetics
• Night shift work
• Medications
• Aging

The most common Sleep Disorders are:

 Insomnia: There are four basic kinds of insomnia:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Difficulty staying asleep
• Waking up too early
• Poor quality sleep

Someone with insomnia may have symptoms such as:

• Feeling tired and grumpy during the day
• Having trouble concentrating
• Falling asleep during the day

Everyone has one occasional night of bad sleep. For most people insomnia lasts for a few days and doesn’t have to be treated. But stress or depression can cause a higher level of this disorder that could last for weeks or even months and has to be treated.

Narcolepsy: Two kinds of narcolepsy:

• Narcolepsy with cataplexy
• Narcolepsy without cataplexy

Cataplexy is when some body parts suddenly become weak. It is normally caused by strong emotions. (something that people also experience while laughing or when they are surprised).

People who suffer from narcolepsy may also experience sleep paralysis, hallucinations, disturbed night sleep, even memory problems.

Night Terror: A night terror is a parasomnia disorder similar to a nightmare that mostly affects children, causing intense feeling of fear terror and dread. The difference between a nightmare and a night terror is that the first takes place during the REM stage whereas the latter take place during the NREM stage. They are not technically a dream, but more like a sudden reaction of fear that happens during the transition from one sleep phase to another. During a night terror the child might start screaming, shouting and acting upset, they won’t respond to voices and are almost impossible to wake up. But after a few minutes he/she will calm down. Unlike nightmares the child won’t have any memory of this the next day.

Sleep paralysis: It causes the person to be unable to move his body either when falling asleep or while waking up. An episode of sleep paralysis may cause someone to be unable to speak and move while breathing normally and being aware that they are awake. Fortunately it only lasts a few minutes. It can be really scary causing the individual to experience stress and fear. They could also have hallucinations. Sleep paralysis can be a sign of narcolepsy it occurs during our teen years and later in our 30s.

Sleep walking: Our last and most known disorder is sleepwalking.

While sleepwalking the sleeper arises from the slow wave stage in a state of low consciousness, performing activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness.  More often it involves actions that are crude, strange or in the wrong place. This might include moving furniture around, climbing out of a window or even frantically trying to escape from something the person dreamt about earlier. In rare cases it has been reported that the patient got in his car and drove away. It can be very hard to wake a sleepwalker up and it is not advised because they always wake up very confused. The main risk with sleepwalking is injury to oneself or even an attack to the person who tries to wake him/her (especially men become very violent).

Many crimes have been attributed to sleepwalking; this includes homicides, assaults, even sexual harassments. The level of responsibility and severity of punishment has been highly debated because sleepwalkers are almost always oblivious to their activities during these episodes.

 Examples of legal cases:

• 1981 à Steven Steinberg (Arizona) was accused of killing his wife and was acquitted on the grounds of temporary insanity.
• 1992 à R.V. Parks was accused of killing his mother-in-law and attempting to kill his father-in-law, was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Canada
• 2008 à Brian Thomas was accused of killing his wife after he dreamt she was an intruder. He was found not guilty.

-J&E