Good day Steemers!
Do you remember a horror film called "Nightmare on Elm St?" The movie was about people falling asleep and getting murdered in there dreams but it actually happening in reality. The movie scared the heck out of a generation that was already addicted to gore films.
The movie was creative and successful and went on to adding sequel after sequel. I was thinking about the premise behind this film and decided to look a bit deeper into it. I posed the question to myself, "Is it possible to have nightmares that actually traumatize you, even cause death?"
Have you ever experienced reoccurring nightmares? A study done in Australia in 2010 was unable to rule out the idea that bad dreams are the minds way of processing anxiety, therefore having a healing effect on emotions. Actually, reoccurring nightmares caused more anxiety.
Tore Nielson, director of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at Sacred Heart Hospital in Montreal posed a possibility that something is going wrong in the brains of people who experience more anxiety due to nightmares, rather then ease it. Nightmares are supposed to help us process our emotions but if a person has this defect, the nightmares actually cause more trauma.
As far as nightmares causing death?...
A condition known as SUNDS "Sudden unexpected nocturnal death syndrome", a genetic disease, that basically causes your heart to forget to remember to beat in mostly young men was the inspiration of Wes Cravens films "Nightmare on Elm Street" but I did not find any info linking nightmares to SUNDS.
Another phenomena that could be compared to a "Freddy Kruger" experience is something called Night Terrors. People who suffer with Night Terrors report waking up to a chest pressure and a sense of someone or something else in the room with them. People who experience night terrors are unable to move sometimes, but also wildly thrashing is a symptom of night terrors. Some who experience them believe that the terrors are associated to alien abduction or demons.
The mind is an unexplored ocean of variables. What relevance do dreams hold if any? What are your thoughts?
