We dream between 4 and 6 times a night but we only remember our dreams about 3 to 4 times a week. Simply because we can only remember the dreams in which we woke up. If we stay asleep until the end of the dream, it will immediately be forgotten.
But if these dreams suddenly turn into nightmares or even hallucinations, or wake you up in the wee hours of the morning, it may be important to talk to your doctor.
These nightmares can be caused by taking beta-blockers to treat high blood pressure. This class of drugs can indeed alter the balance of certain chemical compounds in the brain and cause nightmares.
They can also be due to heart rhythm disorders. A recent Dutch study showed that people who had an irregular heartbeat had three times more nightmares than others due to poor oxygenation of the blood and therefore of the brain.
Finally, among migraine sufferers, nightmares can announce the imminent arrival of a migraine attack.
According to Dr Nicholas Oscroft, a sleep specialist at Cambridge Hospital, these recurring dreams should not be taken lightly as they can be an early sign of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. “These are indicators that can appear ten years before the first signs of the disease” underlines the doctor.
The most common reason is a meal that is too high in fat the day before, which prevents digestion from taking place properly. In the early morning, acid reflux wakes you up while you are in the middle of REM sleep (the last phase of the sleep cycle during which dreams occur).
But these dawn awakenings can also be a sign of the onset of depression.
In fact, you don’t dream more often, but you wake up more often during your dreams, so you remember them more easily. If you have eliminated the simplest causes such as an overheated bedroom or chronic pain (painful periods for example), this can be caused by a “rebound effect” during a period of withdrawal from anxiolitics or antidepressants . These drugs dramatically reduce periods of REM sleep and when we stop taking them our brain “catch up” by extending the periods of sleep during which we dream.
