August 2, 2017
A recent study conducted by English researchers and published on July 15 explains that to have fewer nightmares, it would suffice to sleep less. Explanations.
Alcohol and stress play only a small role in the development of nightmares
The study, conducted by the University of Oxford (England) and published on July 15 in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, was based on a online questionnaire to which 846 participants responded. They had to indicate the number of nightmares of the last days, describe them and specify if they were particularly stressed or if they had consumed alcohol.
Contrary to popular belief, nightmares would not be due solely to stress or alcohol abuse, but nights that are too long. According to the researchers, the participants in this study suffering from anxiety disorders did not have more nightmares than the others.
The longer the night, the greater the risk of nightmares
According to the researchers, who specify that ” nightmares (…) have rarely been the subject of an empirical study », The result of the investigation is clear: the longer the nights, 9 hours or more, the greater the risk of nightmares. Long nights would therefore not be a sign of exceptional quality of sleep.
To reach this conclusion, scientists explain that the longer the hours of sleep, the more the phases of paradoxa sleepthe, which is the fifth and final stage of sleep, increases. However, it is during this phase that dreams and nightmares are most numerous, when the body temperature, the electrical waves of the brain and the eye movements are disturbed.
Aurélie Giraud
Read also: Take care of the quality of your sleep
