Nightmares reveal HEALTH warning signs
By: Team Ifairer | Posted: 01-04-2014
Heart It
Regular nightmares, could, for example, be a sign of sleep apnoea - this causes breathing to stop temporarily as the airways become obstructed. Patients with sleep apnoea often report frequent nightmares.
A study by Swansea University, in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine in 2011, assessed the dream content of 47 males with sleep apnoea. Those with the most severe symptoms reported the most 'emotionally negative and unpleasant' nightmares.
A study in 2012 in the journal Sleep Medicine found that, when patients were treated for sleep apnoea by wearing a mask that gently forced air into their airways, 91 per cent stopped having nightmares. Choking attacks and the drop of oxygen to the brain which occur during sleep apnoea can give rise to nightmares, said lead researcher Professor Ahmed S. BaHammam, a sleep medicine expert at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.