Anxiety Dreams
As we live in anxious times, a good night’s sleep may be a luxury to many people. The anxiety and stress we carry from responsibilities, deadlines, and relationships during the day can still find their way into our dreams. This phenomenon is known as “anxiety dreams”.
Anxiety dreams and nightmares, though both unpleasant, are quite different from each other. Nightmare is a common experience among most people. Nightmares often involve vivid, threatening, and odd images that evoke fear or terror. Falling, getting chased, and monsters are some common nightmares. On the other hand, anxiety dreams leave us feeling worried and apprehensive. Anxiety dreams are triggered by real-life stressors and usually occur during periods when we experience intense levels of stress and anxiety in our waking lives. It is important to note that being anxious alone doesn’t cause anxiety dreams; rather, they are caused by the stressful situations that we are in. Like many dreams, nightmares and anxiety dreams tend to happen during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Please read previous posts in our blog for more information on sleep and dreams.
For students, one of the most common themes of anxiety dreams is related to studying. Students report seeing all kinds of dreams during their exam week, from not being able to find the exam hall to not knowing the answers. For example, a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research found that university students reported a significant increase in dream recall and dream content related to academic stressors during exam periods (Blagrove et al., 2011). You may experience these dreams because you have high expectations and are strongly motivated to do well in the exam. Therefore, they reflect the intensity and significance of academic stressors in your waking life.
Revealed by its name, an anxiety dream will surely cause negative emotions. However, an interesting piece of research has shown that students who experienced anxiety dreams before their exams ended up scoring higher marks (Arnulf et al., 2014). The findings are in line with the “threat simulation theory”, which states that people rehearse threatening events in their heads to increase their chance of successfully dealing with them in the future (e.g., Valli et al., 2005). Nevertheless, the burden of experiencing disturbing dreams may be so large that the benefits are outweighed. Here are some methods we suggest that you can alleviate the anxiety and stress that cause anxiety dreams:
Meditate: meditation is a helpful tool in stress management and the practice of being present.
Journal: write down all the thoughts that are disturbing and worrying you on paper so you can process them and find a solution.
Keep a sleeping diary: it helps you identify patterns of anxiety dreams and the common cause of them. A sleeping diary may also be useful when professional help is needed.
References:
Arnulf, I., Grosliere, L., Le Corvec, T., Golmard, J. L., Lascols, O., & Duguet, A. (2014). Will students pass a competitive exam that they failed in their dreams? Consciousness and Cognition, 29, 36–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.06.010
Blagrove, M., Fouquet, N. C., Henley-Einion, J. A., Pace-Schott, E. F., Davies, A. C., Neuschaffer, J. L., & Turnbull, O. H. (2011). Assessing the dream-lag effect for REM and NREM stage 2 dreams. PloS one, 6(10), e26708. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026708
Valli, K., Revonsuo, A., Pälkäs, O., Ismail, K. H., Ali, K. J., & Punamäki, R. L. (2005). The threat simulation theory of the evolutionary function of dreaming: Evidence from dreams of traumatized children. Consciousness and Cognition, 14(1), 188–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-8100(03)00019-9