Nightmares can be defined as terrifying dreams that a sleeping person goes through in the middle of REM sleep.
Nightmares often called as REM Nightmare, dream anxiety attack or dreams of terror. All these dreams are commonly termed as Nightmares when it comes down to classification of dreams and vastly preferred for describing the condition of the sleeper in case of pediatric instances and grown up humans.
Other names are mainly practiced to distinguish between the phenomenon’s of sleep terror (also known as 4 stage nightmares) based on the assumption that the 4 phases are covered by Nightmare and REM sleep periods. Due to the difference between sleep terrors and Nightmares, most of the doctors prefer to call it simply Nightmares.
The symptoms of Nightmares:
- While going through the REM sleep period there’s must be at least a single awakening from sleep with extreme terror and phobia that comes with a feeling of being hurt.
- Having an instantaneous recall of the terrifying dream.
- Being fully conscious after awaking with bewilderment.
- Related features:
- Again going back to sleepy state after the phase is overdue.
- Occurrence of Nightmares mostly in the second half of the sleep hours.