With even commonly-abused substances like cannabis causing sleep problems in more than 40% of those trying to quit, sleep deprivation is a serious concern for anyone struggling with a substance use disorder, and should be understood in the interest of effective self-care.

The road to recovery is never easy, but by consciously working to understand the link between sleep deprivation and addiction, those struggling with substance misuse can make the road ahead that much easier. If you’re struggling with addiction and sleep difficulties, here’s a closer look at how you can better manage the impact of addiction on your sleep and minimize the challenges preventing a speedy recovery.

The relationship between sleep deprivation and addiction

From regular users to those who are almost completely recovered, substance addictions of all kinds have been shown to have a close relationship with a person’s sleeping habits. Alcohol, for example, has been shown to decrease quality of sleep by around 9% even at lower doses, preventing REM sleep as the relaxing effects wear off after the last drink.

Sleep issues are also common among people who use illicit drugs, with heavy stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines making it near-impossible for the mind to relax when under the influence, and insomnia being a common withdrawal symptom when people come off these substances.

Frustratingly, the sleep issues caused by substance abuse such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and disturbances in sleep cycles can make it harder for addicted people to stay sober. The irritation of sleep problems can make it easy to turn to a substance as a quick-and-easy solution, creating a vicious cycle that ultimately makes recovery harder in the long run.

A vicious cycle

The pain and discomfort that comes with addiction recovery can make a person more vulnerable to sleep issues, but this relationship can also work in reverse.

Research has shown that people who experience sleep deprivation and unhealthy sleep cycles are at greater risk of developing substance use disorders. Drugs like cannabis, Ambien, and alcohol are all popular go-to drugs for those experiencing sleep issues, and on the flip side, people who feel fatigued and groggy in their waking life can turn to stimulants in order to keep feeling functional.

Research shows that sleep can have a drastic impact on helping the brain conduct important tasks, such as clearing out potentially dangerous substances like beta-amyloid proteins. Research has found that even one night of sleep deprivation can increase the amount of beta-amyloid in the brain.

With sleep deprivation being shown to hinder cognitive function and judgment, not getting enough sleep can also make it harder for people to manage their impulses and avoid making impulsive decisions that lead to relapse.

With sleep issues worsening the health problems associated with addiction, and addictions giving rise to sleep issues, the vicious cycle created between sleep deprivation and addiction can compound the challenge of recovering from one or both of these issues and make it especially important to understand how one side influences the other.

Getting your sleep back on track

If you’re dealing with insomnia while recovering from addiction, it can feel like you’re fighting an unwinnable war as you try to prevent both negative influences from overwhelming you. Though it won’t be easy, alongside seeking professional treatment for insomnia, there are always ways to help along your recovery, manage this cyclical relationship, and maximize your chances of achieving a high standard of sleep.

Get the help you need with recovery

One of the key things to bear in mind when struggling with sleep and addiction is that making a full recovery from your addiction will drastically improve your quality of sleep. With this in mind, it’s important to remember there are resources available for people struggling with addiction, sleep deprivation, and a combination of both.

Seeking professional assistance with any mental health problem can be daunting, especially when you’ve never discussed your mental health challenges openly in the past.

Once you can get over this initial hurdle, the right help will allow you to flesh out a clear roadmap to recovery, and benefit from the expertise of people who will show you you’re not alone in the challenges you’re facing.

Seek support for sleep problems

Whether your addiction is mild or severe, everyone can make positive changes to their daily routine and habits that will help them improve their overall quality of sleep. In many cases, improving your sleep habits can improve your sleep.

If you continue to experience poor sleep or insomnia, seek help from your doctor or the sleep team at an accredited health care center.

The recommended treatment for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-I). It addresses the thoughts and behaviors that keep you from sleeping well. The Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine has a directory of behavioral sleep medicine providers who offer CBT-I.

Final thought

Addiction and sleep deprivation have a complex reciprocal relationship that can make the road to recovery even harder. However, by understanding this link, seeking the professional help you need, and adopting healthier sleeping habits, you’ll be able to develop a healthier relationship with sleep and move more confidently toward your benchmarks for recovery.

As you face the challenges of addiction recovery and its effects on sleep, we hope this guide has helped you understand the state of your health, take charge of your recovery, and look forward to a higher quality of sleep each night.

Medical review by John Saito, MD

Related:

• Opioid use, pain linked to sleep problems
• Sleeping pills, stimulants & prescription drug abuse
• Multiple mood and anxiety disorders cause insomnia

Authored by: Sophie Bishop

Sophie Bishop is a medical journalist. Sophie aims to spread awareness through her writing around issues to do with mental health and well-being and is looking to connect with an engaged audience. Contact Sophie via her website: https://sophiebishop.uk/.

The post Understanding the relationship between sleep deprivation and addiction appeared first on Sleep Education.

We sat down with one of the study’s authors, Andrew Tubbs, from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, to answer some questions.

First, could you give us an overview of what the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis means?

I think everyone knows that getting good sleep is important for thinking clearly and making good decisions, mostly because we’ve all felt stupid and made bad choices after a bad night of sleep. But the amount of sleep you have is just one part of a bigger puzzle because sleep happens in the context of our circadian rhythms, the 24-hour cycles in which we live our lives. These rhythms are why, even after a bad night of sleep, we can get up and be awake and alert during the day—our brains are organized around being as functional as possible at that time. What’s important is that the opposite is true at night: Our circadian rhythms reduce wakefulness and alertness at night to help us go to sleep. All the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis proposes is that people are more likely to make bad decisions when they haven’t had enough sleep and they’re awake when their circadian rhythms are telling them to be asleep. For most people, that’s between 2 to 3 AM, hence “Mind after Midnight.”

All the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis proposes is that people are more likely to make bad decisions when they haven’t had enough sleep and they’re awake when their circadian rhythms are telling them to be asleep.

What would you say is the most surprising finding?

What surprised me was how the risk of dysregulated behaviors was consistently elevated at the same time. We looked at timing of suicide deaths, timing of homicide deaths, sleep/wake timing among folks with suicidal ideation in both community and national samples and kept getting the same answer: 2 to 3 AM. That’s when we started digging through the basic science on what happens to the brain in the middle of the night and pieced together the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis.

The other surprising thing (or sad thing, depending on your view) is that there is so little data on dangerous behaviors during the middle of the night. We looked at dozens and dozens of studies and found a handful of times that researchers even looked at what people were doing at night. Hopefully, our hypothesis will motivate folks to look at outcomes during the night.

What do your findings mean for our readers?

What we know is that risk of suicide, adjusted for patterns of wakefulness, seems to be over three times higher at night than during the day. We have similar data for homicide deaths and the results so far are the same: more risk at night, less risk during the day. So, at this point, the evidence seems to be stacking up in the same direction. What we don’t quite know is why the risk is higher at night. This is the “hypothesis” part of the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis because we hypothesize that the increased risk is due to natural circadian changes in the brain colliding with sleep deprivation to disrupt emotion processing, decision-making, and impulse control. That’s why we need more data to be sure.

Regardless of the reason risk is up at night, we’re still confident that it is. Thus, our best tool to mitigate this risk is still to get a good night of sleep, and for folks with sleep disorders like insomnia or sleep apnea, that means getting good, evidence-based treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy or positive airway pressure therapy.

Some people prefer to stay up late and sleep late. How does the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis take late chronotypes, or “night owls,” into consideration?

Despite the name, the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis doesn’t actually claim that risk is highest right after midnight for everyone. We think that risk is elevated because of sleep duration and circadian rhythms, so if you’re a night owl and you regularly go to sleep at 1 AM and wake up at 10 AM, your risk zone is probably closer to 6 or 7 AM. Conversely, a morning lark who goes to sleep at 8 PM and wakes up at 4 AM may have a risk zone around 11 PM to 12 AM. It all depends on the individual, on how much sleep you get, and how your circadian rhythms are organized.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

It is very likely that not everyone experiences the same risk with being awake at night as everyone else. For some people, the risk may be minimal while for others it may be off the charts. This is why this is such an exciting research hypothesis, because it gives us the tools and framework for finding and explaining the differences between people.

Along those lines, I’ve seen comments from folks on Twitter about how being awake at night increases their creativity and inventiveness, and I think this actually fits into our hypothesis quite nicely. We think that one of the big drivers of risk is behavioral disinhibition, such that people say or do things they wouldn’t ordinarily say or do. For someone already suicidal, this could be extremely dangerous. But for someone creative (who isn’t also suicidal), this disinhibition may help them turn off their inner critic and push forward with new and exciting ideas. I just hope they don’t end up also cutting their ear off (like Van Gogh).

To read the full study, click here. To join the conversation about the “Mind after Midnight” hypothesis on Twitter, click here.

Authored by:

Kate Robards

The post The ‘Mind after Midnight’: People more likely to make bad decisions late at night appeared first on Sleep Education.

There is a big problem facing college students today. Students are sleeping less and not getting a healthy amount. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, as a nation, 35% of adults are not getting enough sleep. This comes out to about 84 million adults sleeping less than the recommended 7 or more hours a night.

The reality is that many students are overworked. Many take a packed course load, work a part-time job, and still try to find time to be social. However, a lack of sleep can severely hurt grades, among other things. Many college students cram before a test and pull an “all-nighter,” staying awake until the early hours of the morning. This ends up hurting in the long run, as being sleep-deprived impacts the skills needed to do well on tests, like memory recall and concentration. In fact, many students who pull an all-nighter often end up having have lower GPAs.

Lack of sleep can be caused by, and contribute to, mental health problems. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 44% of students experience symptoms of depression. Also, 80% feel overwhelmed by academic responsibilities, and 50% have struggled with anxiety. These mental health issues can hurt your ability to sleep well. Poor sleep also increases your risk of mood problems. This can lead to consequences with grades and work.

Another problem of sleep deprivation is drowsy driving. In this case, it is prevalent mainly among students who commute to school. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety states that 16- 24-year-olds are 80% more likely to be in a drowsy driving accident. Drowsy driving is like driving drunk: reaction times, attentiveness, alertness and decision-making skills are all impaired. When students don’t get enough sleep and then drive to class early in the morning, they not only put themselves at risk, but also everybody else around them. The only way to truly combat drowsy driving is to get a good 7 or more hours of sleep nightly.

As a college senior, I have personally seen the effects of sleep deprivation. I had two friends drop out of school due to their poor grades. They didn’t get enough sleep, causing them to skip class and do poorly on exams. Many of my friends and classmates don’t get enough sleep, instead choosing to stay up late doing schoolwork or being social. I am also guilty of not getting enough sleep as I often stay up late playing video games or (occasionally) studying.

Sleep is underrated when it comes to college students. Many treat sleep as a luxury only for the weekends, when it should be treated the same no matter the day of the week. The negative effects of an unfulfilling night of sleep outweigh the benefits of a few more hours of studying. College students need to start changing their sleep habits and schedules; until that day, sleepy students will sadly continue to underperform academically and fall asleep in class.

The post College students aren’t getting nearly enough sleep appeared first on Sleep Education.

Sleep deprivation puts you at a higher risk of having depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. And, sleep problems are more likely to affect people who have existing mental health issues. Treating your sleep disorder may help with symptoms of mental health problems.

If you’re experiencing a sleep disorder you may meet with a sleep psychologist, one of the members of the integrated sleep care team.

What is a sleep psychologist?

Sleep psychologists study sleep and treat sleep disorders. They are highly trained mental health professionals. They develop an understanding of normal and disordered sleep. Sleep psychologists seek to understand the root of what may be causing your sleep disorder so that they can treat it.

Sleep psychologists can help those experiencing sleep problems related to:

• Insomnia
• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Narcolepsy
• Parasomnias (e.g. nightmares, sleep terrors, sleepwalking, bedwetting)
• Sleep movement disorders (e.g. restless legs syndrome)
• Sleep cycle disorders
• Dependence on sleep medications

Sleep disorders most amenable to interventions provided by sleep psychologists include: chronic insomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, and PAP non-adherence.  Often, sleep psychologists may use cognitive behavioral therapy to treat sleep disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you change actions or thoughts that are hurting your ability to sleep well.

Studies have found that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is more effective than medications used to treat insomnia. It is the role of sleep psychologists to administer this type of behavioral therapy to treat sleep disorders.

Because many sleep disorders affect overall health, sleep psychologists may work closely with other members of the sleep team, including physicians, surgeons and dentists, to treat co-occurring health issues.

“Close collaboration with the sleep team informs my care of the sleep patient every step of the way,” says Dr. Deirdre Conroy, clinical director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at University of Michigan. “Whether it is discussing the results of the polysomnogram, laboratory results, recent adjustments to CPAP pressure, or obtaining other updates on their health, the medical component of the patient’s treatment is integral to the mental health component.”

The treatment for your sleep disorder depends on its underlying cause. If you’re experiencing trouble sleeping, get help from the sleep team at an accredited sleep center near you.

Medical review by Deirdre Conroy, DBSM, DABSM

Related:

• How seasonal affective disorder disrupts sleep
• Multiple mood and anxiety disorders cause insomnia

Authored by:

Kate Robards

The post Spotlight on sleep psychologists appeared first on Sleep Education.

It’s recommended that teens sleep 8-10 hours a night. But many teens are not getting enough sleep. In fact, more than 70% of high school students report getting fewer than 8 hours of sleep on an average school night.

A lack of sleep can have a negative effect on teens’ mental health and decision-making skills.

Teens who get fewer than 8 hours of sleep on average school nights are more likely to participate in risky behaviors. For example, a survey of more than 12,000 high school students found that teens who did not get enough sleep were more likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or use marijuana.

For those teens who turn to marijuana, there may be long-lasting effects on sleep into adulthood.

More and more, marijuana is marketed as a sleep aid. However, new research suggests that marijuana use at a young age could negatively affect sleep later in life.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that teens who use marijuana  are more likely to experience insomnia as an adult. The study of 1,800 twins found that a third of participants who started smoking marijuana before age 17 developed insomnia as young adults.

Parents have an important role in helping teens develop healthy sleep habits that will benefit them into adulthood. Follow these five sleep tips for parents of tired teens. Establishing a defined bedtime can also help teens sleep longer.

Supporting healthy sleep in teens will help them make smarter choices today and create a better tomorrow.

Authored by:

Kate Robards

The post Teen marijuana use linked to adult insomnia appeared first on Sleep Education.

What is seasonal affective disorder?

SAD is a type of depression that occurs at the same time each year. Often beginning in late fall or early winter, SAD is treatable and usually resolves within a few months.

How do know if you have SAD? The symptoms are like those of depression. Many people experience sadness, hopelessness, a loss of interest in activities, fatigue, and social withdrawal.

More than 10 million people in the U.S. may have seasonal depression, and it’s more common in women, young people, and those who live far from the equator. Shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight may cause a hormonal imbalance that makes you feel depressed.

How does SAD affect sleep?

If you have SAD, you may experience sleep problems. People with SAD often feel excessively sleepy during the day and sleep longer than usual at night. According to research, people with SAD sleep two hours longer or more per night in the winter compared with the summer.

You may have difficulty waking from a long sleep or feel the need to nap repeatedly throughout the day. Napping may not provide relief from feeling sleepy, though.

Also, nightmares are common among people with SAD. One study found that 16% of participants with SAD had frequent nightmares compared with 2.4% of participants without SAD.

Healthy sleep is essential to your overall health. It helps you balance your mood and emotions. Without healthy sleep, you’re more likely to struggle with feelings of depression and anxiety.

How to combat SAD

Although SAD usually resolves within a few months when the seasons change, there are treatment options available. The most common treatment is light therapy. During light therapy, a bright artificial light mimics sunshine exposure that’s missing during winter months. Research shows that daily light therapy may reduce depressive symptoms as much as 83% after one month.

Added attention to self-care also may help. Going outdoors, getting regular exercise, eating energy-boosting foods, and engaging in social interactions may reduce symptoms.

Establishing healthy sleep habits can help if you have difficulty sleeping as a result of seasonal depression. Adjusting your daily behaviors and routines can impact your quality of sleep. Follow these sleep hygiene tips to improve your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.

If light therapy and self-care don’t resolve your symptoms, cognitive behavioral therapy or use of antidepressant medications are also treatment options.

If you continue to experience poor sleep along with symptoms of depression, seek help from your health care provider.

Medical review by Lawrence Epstein, MD

Authored by:

Kate Robards

The post How seasonal affective disorder disrupts sleep appeared first on Sleep Education.

Being a teen is hard work. The combination of homework, extra-curricular activities, social life, and maintaining a social media presence consume most of our days. Most nights during the school year, I sleep less than seven hours, more than one hour less than the recommended eight to 10 hours for teens. But like many teens, I struggle to make time for sleep. And I can feel the difference. When sleep deprived, I am rude, easily distracted, and unhappy. These negative behaviors disappear after nine or more hours of sleep.

The post Sleep to feel well: Sleep and mood in teens appeared first on Sleep Education.

As her mother walked her to the car, the dialogue between them would be etched in our memories forever. Brianna’s mother told her to be careful, to which her reply was, “Don’t you trust me?” Her mother assured Brianna that it wasn’t her that she didn’t trust, but other drivers on the road. Brianna’s response was, “You have to let me go, mom,” to which her mother replied, “I’ll just hold on to you tighter.”

Those were the last words we would hear from our daughter.

She was not scheduled to work that day, but being the Christmas season, she was picking up extra hours from co-workers taking off for the holidays. This was a second job she picked up, since she was employed at the airport in Oroville, California, working on a mechanics apprenticeship.

A young, heavy-set, 21-year old man was driving faster than the speed limit. The roads were wet from the rain earlier that morning. My wife and I later found out, according to the driver’s wife, that the man had been sick.

They had a new baby and he was not getting enough sleep.

He went to work that morning to make a delivery since he worked at a transmission shop. He had texted his wife telling her he felt sick, and she replied telling him to come home. In need of the work, he proceeded to make the delivery anyway.

For a time, the man managed to stay on the highway, swerving in and out of the adjacent lane for four miles – drowsing off repeatedly – until he lost control of his pickup truck on a corner of the highway. As the vehicle crossed the center median and up the embankment, his truck went airborne. At that exact moment, our daughter Brianna was coming around the corner.

He collided head-on with her vehicle.

The Highway Patrol report indicated Brianna had no time to react, and was probably not even aware of what hit her. Had there been a one-second delay in the timing, he would have missed her and she’d be alive today. Had there been rails on that section of highway around that dangerous corner, it would have kept him on his side of the highway and she would still be alive.

When my wife got the call from the hospital, she called me in tears. We were devastated! Our world fell out from under our feet that day.

How could this happen? She was our only daughter, our only child.

Our daughter, Brianna, was a unique child, as all children are in their own right. However, though some children enter the world with greater advantages than others, to a large degree, it is up to each individual what they make of themselves in life.

Through most of Brianna’s developing years she was raised in a rural environment, experiencing the great outdoors.  As an only child, she would spend time roaming with her dog around our 15-acre property in the foothills of Yosemite, California. Her love of country life outweighed city living.

Brianna’s upbringing, as a homeschooler taught by her mother, provided her a tremendous advantage in the academic years. Coupled with fresh air, plenty of sunshine and exercise in a natural environment, this paid off during those elementary and high school years.

Brianna’s love for flying began by reading about missionary pilots of the last century. Seeds were planted that would sprout and bear fruit within a few years. She would see her dreams becoming a reality, even before adulthood. At her memorial service, it had been stated that she lived a whole life in those brief 19 years.

In the last year of Brianna’s life, we saw a maturing – mentally and even spiritually. Mature people take responsibility for their actions. She learned that this in itself pays dividends:  respect, trust, and dependability, to name a few.

As a pilot preparing for mission service, she was just two weeks away from her commercial pilot’s license. Brianna had been on two humanitarian mission trips to Panama and Ecuador, where she saw severe poverty first-hand. She also had been to Japan, where she escorted a mother and her son as their photographer. Brianna was an avid and active scuba diver at the master level, a photographer, videographer, and a violinist; these were among her biggest achievements. Although she had much drive, she was also down to earth, teachable, non-judgmental of others, eager to be helpful where she could, and a friend to all.

The weeks and months that followed our daughter’s death were incredibly difficult.

Words cannot express the anguish, grief, pain, frustration, even anger experienced by a parent in losing a child. These emotions were compounded by sleeplessness, an inability to concentrate, and overall helplessness.  It has been said that losing a child is probably the most horrific loss a human being can endure. One thing is for certain: Parents come to grips with the dark realities of life in such times.

Only one’s faith can carry you through such an experience. But through it all, we have grown deeper in an understanding and appreciation of our heavenly Father, and we believe He fastened us in His loving arms. He truly holds the breath of every soul in His hands.

Giving a fair account of what has transpired in the 33 months since our loss would require us to write a book. For the purpose of this article, let it be said that we realized, through the influence of close friends and associates, that we needed to tell our story. A website was set up, and eventually a foundation was established:  Brianna’s Wings of Passion. We hope that it will further Brianna’s legacy and be the means of bringing hope to hurting hearts that have also experienced loss and tragedy.

The man who took our daughter’s life faced no legal consequences.

He was not under the influence of alcohol, or drugs; he just fell asleep. Since there is not enough information or preventive laws on the books regarding drowsy driving, no prosecutorial action could be taken.

In response, my wife and I are pursuing prevention and legislative efforts to reduce traffic collisions, especially those that result in a loss of life, as national interest continues to grow. In particular, this year has opened doors for us to meet with county officials and senators at the state and federal levels to consider pursing legislation.

Along with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, we look to assist with drowsy driving awareness and prevention.  Here are a few ways in which we are currently involved:

• Helping to put up rails on the stretch of highway where our daughter was killed;
• Urging Cal-Trans (California Department of Transportation) to put up signage across the state to bring drowsy driving awareness to the public;
• Asking the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to add the effects of drowsy driving into their manuals, to include new drowsy driving verbiage in the DMV’s examination for renewal or licensure, and to include medical conditions in the application process that would alert highway patrol officers of potential drowsiness-inducing conditions at a traffic collision or when pulling over a driver; and
• Working with California Highway Patrol (CHP) to bring awareness to schools on the dangers of drowsy driving. The CHP will be doing a state-wide awareness campaign including a short interview on our family’s experience.

The drowsy driving issue certainly has become an epidemic in this nation.

We are pleased to see many groups – both private and public – collaborating on solutions. Our hope is that these efforts will curb the number of crashes and reduce the annual number of crash fatalities, both of which are on the rise.

For more information about Brianna Cassidy’s story, please visit the Brianna’s Wings of Passion Foundation website.

The post A life of passion cut short by drowsy driving appeared first on Sleep Education.

“Our study shows a clear connection between well-being and nightmares,” said lead author Nils Sandman. He is a researcher in the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Turku in Finland.

Nightmares are disturbing dreams that seem vivid and real. They usually involve threats to survival or security. Nightmares also tend to evoke emotions of anxiety, fear or terror. A nightmare can wake you from sleep and make it hard to fall back asleep.

Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint. It involves having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. It also occurs when you wake up earlier than desired. About 10 percent of people have chronic insomnia disorder.

Learn more about the study in the journal Sleep: Nightmares: Risk Factors Among the Finnish General Adult Population.

The post Depression and insomnia are linked to frequent nightmares appeared first on Sleep Education.

Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine and Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Boston, Mass., sought to answer these questions. The study by Dr. Ernest Hartmann and Tyler Brezler was published in the journal Sleep in 2008.

Hartmann and Brezler recruited 11 men and 33 women for their study. Each member of the study group had been recording all their dreams for years. The age range of the 44 participants was 22 to 70 years. They lived across the U.S. None of them lived in Manhattan, and none had anyone close to them die in the attacks.

Each participant submitted written accounts of 20 dreams for the study. These were the last 10 dreams they recorded before 9/11 and the first 10 dreams recorded after the attacks. Most participants recorded at least one or two dreams per week.

The 880 dreams were assigned random numbers. Then they were scored on a blind basis. Dreams were analyzed for features such as central image, intensity, emotion and vividness. They also were scored for content involving attacks, tall buildings and airplanes.

The study authors define a “central image” as a striking or compelling image that stands out. It may be powerful, vivid, bizarre or detailed.

Dreams and 9/11

Results show a significant increase in the presence and intensity of a central image in dreams after 9/11. The researchers conclude that this change springs from an increased emotional arousal after 9/11.

“The more intense imagery is very consistent with findings in people who have experienced trauma of various kinds,” said Dr. Hartmann. “The idea is that we all experienced at least some trauma on 9/11/01.”

Surprisingly, there was no increase in dream content involving airplanes or tall towers. There also were no “replay dreams.” None of the 440 post-9/11 dreams portrayed the events that were replayed time and again on television.

But there was a trend in these dreams to more content involving attacks. The dreamer was almost always the victim or potential victim. Attacks involved animals or monsters, violent criminals or battle scenes.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, bad dreams can cause emotional distress. A nightmare disorder may develop if you have repeated nightmares. About 2% to 8% of people have a nightmare problem. Nightmares also are a common sign of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Dream Theories and 9/11

In the study results the authors find support for the Contemporary Theory of Dreaming. The theory states that dreams are guided by the emotion of the dreamer. The central imagery of the dream depicts the dreamer’s emotion.

This would explain why no dreams in the study depicted specific scenes of the terrorist attacks. Instead the dreams were more likely to involve the emotional theme or idea of an attack. This supports the view that dreams are new, emotional creations rather than a replay of waking events.

As an example the authors cite the common dream image of a tidal wave. It is often reported by people who have been through an attack or other trauma. The image of a tidal wave may reflect the emotion of terror or being overwhelmed.

The authors predict that the images of 9/11 may become another “tidal wave.” We may dream of the terrorist attacks during stressful times of emotional trauma.

The authors also state that the study results give some support to the “continuity hypothesis” of dreaming. This view is that dreams reflect the concerns of waking life.
Dreams in the study did not reflect the likely concerns about future terrorist attacks. But they did reflect a general, emotional concern about a lack of safety.

Article originally published on Sept. 11, 2008

The post What we can learn from 9/11 about dreams and nightmares appeared first on Sleep Education.