Nightmares. was Passiflora and dreams

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Articles in Observer 28 October2007 in the section headed New York Times:

'Sleep, Nature's Baffling Nurse' and 'In Nightmares, Clues to Why We Dream'.

It seems that most dreams are bad. Nightmares are defined as bad dreams that

wake you up. They represent a dysfunction of the 'fear extinction' system

through allowing the dreamer to escape prematurely. Waking up is an indicator of

failing to deal with or resolve an intense emotion.

Ordinary bad dreams (where you sleep through) rarely recapitulate unpleasant

events from real life but instead cannibalize them for props and spare parts and

through the reinvention process successfully defuse the fears, anxieties etc. of

the daytime.

I wondered how this theory might relate to post traumatic stress disorder: maybe

sufferers could be enabled to face and resolve the dreadful memories through

inducing bad dreams?

The main article is a good update on the latest sleep knowledge.

Morag

M. Chacksfield BSc, MNIMH

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