The question of why not everyone has nightmares and why some people don't dream at all remains open. However, scientists claim that everyone dreams, but not everyone remembers their dream. Apparently, these people are not yet ready to accept their concerns or hidden desires even in a symbolic form.
At the same time, people who often have horrible nightmares have distinctive traits. According to scientists, they listen to their inner voice more often, have a livelier imagination and their thoughts are often of a negative nature, even if they don't even notice it. Most often, these are excessively open and very vulnerable people.
By the way, if before it was believed that we solve our inner problems through dreams and somehow unload psychologically, now scientists are talking about the harm from dreams. According to the new theory, it is better not to have dreams at all.
According to Prof. Patricia Garfield, there are altogether 12 dream plots where you are being chased, or so-called nightmares.
The second most popular are dreams where people are misled or find themselves in some type of inescapable situation. The third spot is shared by dreams of falling and those where a person feels incredible embarrassment in front of a crowd because of how they are dressed or if they are naked. Plots where one is hurt also have significant place.
Another discovery shared at the conference was by a group of Italian scientists. During a dream, it is possible for a person to actually be learning how to act in extreme situations. The experts from Italy reached this conclusion after studying the symptoms of the so-called REM behavior disorder - a sleep disorder, which is practically always linked with aggressive behavior.
Persons suffering from REM sleep behavior disorder, act aggressively toward anyone around them or harm themselves, without even waking. There were such incidents where a person punched a hole through the wall of their bedroom, another began shooting, another tried to jump through a window, while yet another set fire to their own bed.
Some of the patients choked their spouses. What's more is that in their daily life, these people were not at all aggressive, in fact quite the opposite. Further, besides from sleep disorders, they did not suffer from any other psychological disorders.
While trying to find the causes of REM disorder, Italian medics from San Raffaele University discovered that patients suffering from this disorder witnessed violence in their dreams more often. Plus, they often dreamed of animals and strangers.
