WASHINGTON — It’s hard to get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed when you’re plagued by nightmares. But don’t blame what you ate last night for those bad dreams: The answer may lie in your state of mind.
Researchers in Finland say people with depression or insomnia appear to be at high risk for frequent nightmares.
They crunched data on 13,922 Finnish adults between the ages of 25 and 74 who took part in two national surveys and detected a clear connection between mood and sleep disorders and constant bad dreams.
Reporting in the journal Sleep, the researchers emphasize that they’re not sure whether the nightmares cause depression, or the other way around. But they say the results of their study are significant, and raise all sorts of possibilities for treatment.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says nightmares tend to focus on imminent physical danger or other distressing themes and often evoke emotions of anxiety, fear or terror.
