Dreams reveal your health

Scientists believe that dreams can provide important clues about human health, even suggesting early warnings before physical symptoms appear.

Women tend to remember their dreams more than men, perhaps because they tend to be more sensitive and thoughtful. Each person can have up to three or four dreams in a row, usually after falling asleep for about 90 minutes.

Nightmares

Causes may include blood pressure, heart disease, migraines or lack of sleep.

Blood pressure medications can give you “quite unpleasant dreams,” says Professor Jim Horne, a sleep expert at Loughborough University. These drugs are widely used to help widen blood vessels, but experts believe they may also indirectly alter the chemical balance in the brain, which then triggers nightmares.

Bad dreams may also be linked to an unhealthy heart, according to a study in the Netherlands Medical Journal of 6,000 people. The study found that people with irregular heartbeats were three times more likely to have nightmares, while those with chest pain were more than seven times more likely. This may be because people with heart problems are more likely to have breathing problems, which reduces oxygen levels in the brain.

Nightmares can be a warning sign of heart disease, blood pressure, migraines. Photo: Newstr.

Nightmares can also be a warning of an impending migraine, causing disturbances in the brain. A study of 37 patients found that dreams often involved themes of anger and aggression in everyday life.

A person who is psychologically unstable, weak-willed will also often experience the feeling that someone is in the room, or someone is putting pressure on their chest, unable to move, move their limbs. This usually only lasts 1-2 minutes, but can leave a lasting fear afterwards.

Dreaming more than usual

Causes may include being too hot or cold, chronic pain, or side effects from taking antidepressants.

Being too hot or too cold in a room can make us dream more, says Professor Horne. This also means you'll remember more details of your dreams when you wake up.

Hormonal changes in women can cause this phenomenon. Some women report having more dreams during their menstrual cycle. Feeling bloated and having cramps during their period can cause them to wake up more often during the night.

Lack of sleep, just 4-6 hours/day will also make your sleep restless, short dreams occur continuously. It can also happen when patients stop taking antidepressants.

Dream of being attacked

The cause could be Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.

Stressful dreams, such as being attacked or chased, can be an early sign of neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, says Dr Oscroft, a sleep specialist at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.

People who are constantly in a state of fear and struggle in their dreams are said to be suffering from sleep behavior disorder. Dreams always make you panic, have strange actions, sometimes injure yourself or your partner in the dream.

This is a strong predictor of diseases like Alzheimer's, and can sometimes appear up to 10 years before dementia symptoms appear. "If you're having this happen regularly, get it checked out by your doctor," says Dr. Oscroft.

Dreams that wake you up early

Causes may include eating a high-fat meal, obesity, stress or depression.

Fatty meals tend to stay in the stomach longer. This puts pressure on the valves between the stomach and throat, which can cause excess stomach acid to build up, causing heartburn. This often happens in the first hours after falling asleep, can wake you up in the night with a warm stomach, and can cause interrupted dreams.

People with severe depression or stress also do not sleep much, often waking up earlier due to psychological fluctuations.

Memorable or strange dreams

Causes may include alcohol, infections, antimalarial medications, or menopause.

Drinking a lot of alcohol at night can cause particularly memorable dreams right before you wake up. “They find themselves in a vivid dream at the end of the night. Alcohol can affect the chemicals in the brain in some way and cause strange dreams,” says Professor Horne.

Memorable or strange dreams can be caused by the effects of alcohol, infections...

When the body is infected, that is, under attack from a bacterium, the immune system needs to use all its strength to fight it off. Sleep can cause you to dream more, wake up more because of the mechanism to boost the defense.

“Many patients have told me that antibiotics cause vivid dreams. Mefloquine, an antimalarial drug, is known to trigger “epic dreams” with long stories, many characters, unusual colors or strange monsters. One theory is that these drugs disrupt levels of acetylcholine in the brain, which plays a key role in controlling dreams.

Many women report that their dreams are especially vivid during menopause. This may be due to fluctuating hormone levels.

Sexual dreams

The reason may be increased creativity.

Dreams involving sex often lead to the development and explosion of creativity, especially common in people over 60, psychologist Ian Wallace asserts.

"Many of my clients in the 60s and 70s confided in me that the dream had nothing to do with their sex life, but was actually connected to creativity in everyday life."

The sexual desire of people over 50 often decreases a lot, which may explain the increase in the number of sexual dreams they experience.

According to Newsrt-PC