Do Dreams Impact Sleep Quality?

How Does Dreaming Affect Sleep?

During sleep, people cycle through stages of light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep Trusted Source National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) NINDS aims to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease. View Source . Although dreaming can occur in any sleep stage, it’s most often associated with REM sleep, which occurs in longer stints toward the end of the night. REM sleep is associated with vivid imagery, and about 20 to 25 percent of a typical night of sleep is REM sleep. Emerging research suggests that people who are woken up while dreaming tend to feel as if they were sleeping more deeply Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . 

Conversely, people who are woken up from lighter stages of sleep that don’t typically involve dreaming may not even realize they were sleeping at all. This misperception of feeling awake while asleep is called “paradoxical insomnia” Trusted Source American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) AASM sets standards and promotes excellence in sleep medicine health care, education, and research. View Source and also occurs in some people during deep sleep stages, which are also less likely to involve dreams.

“Dream recall involves waking from a dream state, often REM sleep. REM sleep often ends the night, so dreams can be recalled upon awakening in the morning to an alarm. If someone transitions from REM to a lighter stage of sleep before transitioning to consciousness, they are unlikely to recall the dream.”

Dr. Brandon Peters

Sleep Physician, Sleep Psychiatry Expert

The type of dream from which a person wakes up may also impact their perception of their sleep quality. Specifically, more vivid and involved dreams may make a person feel as if they’ve slept more deeply compared to dreams that are less involved. However, having frequent nightmares may be linked to a subjective sense of lower sleep quality Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . 

More research is needed to understand how dreams and sleep quality affect one another. Sleep experts suspect that studying dreams could help researchers gain a more complete understanding of subjective sleep quality.

Will Good Sleep Lead to Good Dreams?

Limited research suggests that nightmares and bad dreams occur more often among people with poor sleep Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . People with the sleep disorders insomnia and narcolepsy tend to have more negative dreams than those without the disorders. Similarly, having nightmares may disrupt sleep. So, it appears that poor sleep can make bad dreams more likely, and bad dreams can potentially worsen sleep.

“Sleep apnea is worsened in REM sleep as the muscles of the airway are relaxed with REM-related muscle atonia, which can potentiate dream recall with sleep fragmentation.”

Dr. Brandon Peters

Sleep Physician, Sleep Psychiatry Expert

More research is needed to determine if the reverse is true, if good sleep leads to better dreams. Surprisingly, one study comparing the dreams of good sleepers versus poor sleepers found that good sleepers’ dreams tend to more frequently contain negative emotions than positive ones. However, poor sleepers in the study experienced more intense negative emotions in their dreams and were more likely to have nightmares.

Sleep experts often recommend improving sleep hygiene in order to have fewer nightmares. Along the same lines, habits like adopting a regular sleep schedule and bedtime routine may help regulate progression through the sleep stages, ensuring a healthy amount of REM sleep and upping the chances of having good dreams Trusted Source UpToDate More than 2 million healthcare providers around the world choose UpToDate to help make appropriate care decisions and drive better health outcomes. UpToDate delivers evidence-based clinical decision support that is clear, actionable, and rich with real-world insights. View Source .

What Causes Bad Dreams?

Experts think many factors may cause a person to experience bad dreams or nightmares.

• Daily life events: Dreams may be a way for people to process emotions felt during the day and prepare for anticipated events in the future. If this is true, then negative events in a person’s day and expected upcoming events may be more likely to trigger bad dreams and nightmares. For example, one study found that work situations often appeared in dream content Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source .
• Stress: Stress can lead to restless sleep and may increase the chance of bad dreams. This leads to a vicious cycle, because disrupted sleep makes it more difficult to deal with stress Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . 
• Trauma: Experiencing trauma of any type makes a person more likely to experience nightmares. When a person develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), their nightmares are often flashbacks of a traumatic event.
• Mental health issues: PTSD isn’t the only mental health disorder that may involve nightmares. Depression, anxiety disorders including panic disorder, borderline personality disorder, and schizophrenia can also cause a person to have nightmares.
• Medication use: Some medications may produce nightmares as a side effect. These include antidepressants, blood pressure medications, antimicrobials, and medications used to treat Parkinson’s disease. Withdrawal from certain medications may also trigger nightmares.
• Sleep position: One study found that stomach sleeping led to an increase of dreams that involve feeling tied up, unable to move, locked up, or unable to breathe Trusted Source American Psychological Association (APA) PsycNet The APA is a scientific and professional organization that represents psychologists in the United States. The APA maintains a searchable database of scholarly content at APA PsycNet. View Source .

Can Dreams Influence Everyday Life?

After an upsetting nightmare, a person may experience increased stress the next day. Nightmares that trigger nighttime awakenings can also affect sleep quality, which may lead to next-day tiredness and affect quality of life if nightmares are frequent. When it comes to good dreams, researchers haven’t focused much on how dreaming influences a person’s daily life. 

Dreams are thought to be an effective way of working through difficult emotions and memories. While this may lead to nightmares in the short term, it may ultimately make it easier for a person to move on from negative past experiences and be better-equipped to face future challenges. Recurring nightmares that cause difficulty in everyday life may be reduced by practices like image rehearsal therapy. Image rehearsal therapy is a type of therapy meant to help reduce nightmares and improve sleep by rewriting a recurring nightmare. 

Some research exists on the relationship between lucid dreaming and daily life. Lucid dreams are dreams in which a sleeper becomes aware they are dreaming and is able to direct the dream without fully waking up Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . One study found that sleepers may feel more refreshed the morning after having a lucid dream. Some experts have also argued that learning to have lucid dreams could help reduce nightmares and associated negative emotions for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

“If you recall frequent dreams and experience reduced sleep quality, consider evaluation by a board-certified sleep provider to understand the potential contributions and find effective interventions.”

Dr. Brandon Peters

Sleep Physician, Sleep Psychiatry Expert

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