Nightmares and the Brain

Autumn 2015
In the late 1700s, a nightmare was defined as a “disease when a man in his
sleep supposes he has a great weight laying upon him.”

This definition came from the popular reference text, An

Universal Etymological English Dictionary, first published by Nathan Bailey in 1721 and
reprinted through 1802. Although that definition doesn’t surface often today, nightmares are still
considered to be frightening dreams that result in feelings of terror, fear, distress, or anxiety.

Despite our colloquial use of the term, for example, “my commute was a nightmare,” for an
estimated 3 to 7 percent of the U.S. population, nightmares can be a real problem. Although
adults can suffer from nightmares, they are more typical in children, especially those between the
ages of 3 and 6. “We think that some of this may be evolutionary,” says Deirdre Barrett, PhD, an
HMS assistant clinical professor of psychology at Cambridge Health Alliance and editor of
“Trauma and Dreams,”  published by Harvard University Press in 2001. “Children are smaller
and are vulnerable to many more threats than adults. Nightmares may partially reflect this
vulnerability.”

Dreams are understood to be recent autobiographical episodes that become woven with past
memories to create a new memory that can be referenced later, but nightmares are simply dreams
that cause a strong but unpleasant emotional response. Dreams are part of the brain’s default
network—a system of interconnected regions, which includes the thalamus, medial prefrontal
cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex—that remains active during comparatively quiet periods.

REM sleep is one example of a quiet period. It is a stage of sleep that is characterized by rapid
eye movement, irregular heartbeat, and increased rates of respiration. REM sleep is
discontinuous, chunked into four or five periods that together make up about 20 percent of our
slumber. It is during these REM episodes that brain structures in the default network exert
influence, and it is during REM sleep that vividly recalled dreams occur most often.

Nightmares tend to happen during the period of sleep when REM intervals lengthen; these
usually occur halfway through slumber. As we prepare to awaken, memories begin to integrate
and consolidate. We dream as we emerge from REM sleep. Because we tend to dream on the
sleep-wake cusp, images imagined while dreaming, including the vivid, often terrifying images
produced during nightmares, are remembered.

Terror-filled sleep

Nightmares are often confused

with night terrors, a phenomenon more likely experienced by children than adults and usually
more dramatic than a nightmare. Night terrors are not technically dreams but are instead sudden
fearful reactions that occur during transitions from one sleep phase to another. They typically
occur two to three hours after sleep begins, when deep non-REM sleep transitions to REM sleep.
Night terrors often cause children to kick, scream, and thrash about, but, because night terrors do
not occur during REM sleep, most children do not remember them.

“Night terrors are a phenomenon of the deepest parts of non-REM sleep, when the brain is less
active,” says Barrett. “In a night terror, a child awakens with heart pounding. There is, however,
either no content to the feeling of terror or there is a simple scary image. There is not, however,
the sort of narrative story you experience with dreams, including nightmares.”

John Winkelman, AM ’83, MD ’87, PhD ’83, an HMS associate professor of psychiatry who
studies sleep disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital, says night terrors are often forgotten
the next day because they arise during what is known as short-wave sleep, a time when neurons
in the neocortex, the brain’s center for higher mental functions, are less active.

Nightmares can arise for a number of reasons—stress, anxiety, irregular sleep,

medications, mental health disorders—but perhaps the most studied cause is post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Trauma and nightmares

Nightmares can arise for a number of reasons—stress, anxiety, irregular sleep, medications,
mental health disorders—but perhaps the most studied cause is post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD). Nightmares are a common complaint among people suffering from PTSD and, in fact,
are one of the criteria used for the diagnosis of the disorder. A University of Pittsburgh School of
Medicine study, published in 2009 in "Sleep Medicine Clinics," found that 80 percent of people
experiencing PTSD have frequent nightmares. A 1998 study that analyzed data from the National
Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study found that regular nightmares were reported by 52
percent of combat veterans but only by 3 percent of civilian participants. Not only are nightmares
more common in those with PTSD, they are more frequent, sometimes occurring several times a
week.

Post-traumatic nightmares often involve elements similar to the trauma itself, according to the
National Center for PTSD of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. About half of the people
who have nightmares after a traumatic event have nightmares that replay the trauma. Those with
PTSD are much more likely to have exact replays of their trauma. 

Barrett says that in post-traumatic nightmares, the region of the brain involved in fear behaviors,
including the amygdala, a structure deep in the brain that works to identify potential threats, may
be overactive or overly sensitive. “Post-traumatic nightmares,” she adds, “are probably not
completely different from daytime flashbacks and general daytime anxiety that those
experiencing the nightmares are having.”

Rewritten endings
People who are deeply affected by nightmares can be treated in a variety of ways. First, the cause
of the stress, if there is one, must be determined. If a stressor is identified, effective ways to
manage it should be found. For medication-induced nightmares, dosages might need to be altered
or different drugs administered. People with post-traumatic or chronic nightmares can be treated
with psychological therapy or with medication.

Psychological therapy for nightmares is called image rehearsal therapy, or IRT. In this form of
cognitive therapy, individuals, especially those who repeatedly experience a given type of
nightmare, are asked to recall and write down their nightmares, then asked to rewrite the
nightmare and give it a positive ending. The individual then rehearses the rewritten version
before going to sleep with the aim of displacing the unwanted content during sleep. IRT has been
investigated in a number of studies, says Winkelman, and found to reduce nightmare frequency
and distress.

A study published in 2003 in the "American Journal of Psychiatry" reported that the drug
prazosin could help relieve nightmares in people with PTSD. The drug, traditionally used to treat
hypertension, reduced the level of neurochemicals in pathways that become overstimulated in
PTSD.

Scott Edwards is a freelance science writer based in Massachusetts.