Do you ever get those dreams that are so weird that you just wake up, heart beating fast, unable to forget about them?
They often leave solid, vivid memories, and you end up having to tell someone about them.
But what causes them? After all, you only dream for about 2 hours per night, during your REM sleep. The things that can affect them, though, are probably not what you think.
- Fever. If you’ve ever had a temperature, due to the flu or some other seasonal problem, you probably know that the term “fever dreams” is pretty accurate. This is because your body is unable to adequately cool itself down before REM sleep when you have a fever, leaving your brain to deal with all of the overactivity caused by your excess body heat. This creates some pretty weird signals to your brain, and some pretty weird dreams.
- Alcohol. If you’re someone who gets sleepy with one or two drinks, you probably don’t realize that alcohol actually makes you sleep worse, not better. The alcohol makes your duration of REM sleep decrease, and then rebound later on. This, combined with alcohol’s effect on your body temperature, give alcohol a pretty similar power to fever where REM sleep is concerned.
- Pregnancy. Women in their third trimester experience vivid dreams pretty commonly. But unlike the other two mentioned, it appears to be more of a coping mechanism than anything for these women. The subconscious needs a way to release pregnancy anxieties, and REM sleep is the perfect time to do that.
- Prescription drugs. Drugs prescribed by your doctor can often have vivid, bad dreams as a side effect. For example, antidepressants can affect the brain chemistry in a way that causes bad dreams, as can amphetamines for ADD and beta blockers for high blood pressure. Talk to your doctor if you’re concerned these are the cause.
