We are often disturbed by violent dreams. They wake us up in the middle of the night and haunt us thereafter. There can be many reasons for these dreams, but the foremost reason could be watching violent or sexual content.
The media we watch during the day or just before sleeping can interfere with our dreams at night, suggests new research.
Studies were conducted to analyse the effect of watching sexual or violent media separately. In fact, people watching media containing violent content 90 minutes before going to sleep could have violent dreams 13 times more than any usual person. On the other hand, people consuming sexual media could have a sexual dream more than 6 times, found the study.
"The media we consume can have an impact on us even when we're sleeping," said co-author of the study Brad Bushman, a professor at the Ohio State University in the US.
A study conducted on approximately 1,000 residents of Turkey found that media with more violence led to more violent dreams on a regular basis. A similar study was done for media with sexual content, but the results weren't that strapping.
"Whether we looked at overall media use or media intake for just one day, the result was the same: The media we consume is linked to what we dream about," said Jan Van den Bulck, a professor at the University of Michigan in the US.
As per the study published in the journal Dreaming, one of the most obvious ways to avoid violent and sexual dreams is to avoid watching media with that content.
"It would be good to avoid media with violent and sexual content, especially right before bed," Bushman said.
