Women are more prone to Nightmares.

[El Sitherino]

In a study of 170 volunteers asked to record their most recent dream, 19% of men reported a nightmare compared with 30% of women.

 

Researcher Dr Jennifer Parker of the University of the West of England said there was no difference in the overall number of dreams reported.

 

Other research has shown women tend to have more disturbed sleep than men.

 

One factor which has been linked to this is changes in a woman's body temperature during her monthly cycle.

 

Dr Parker, a lecturer in psychology, said it has been known for a long time that pre-menstrual women report more vivid and disturbing dreams.

 

"The consistent finding in this research was that women report more unpleasant dreams than men."

 

Traumatic

 

Women taking part in the study were much more likely to report dreaming about very emotionally traumatic events such as the loss of a loved one.

 

She added: "In terms of processing emotional information, women may be more prone to taking unresolved concerns into their sleep life."

 

Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre said he was not surprised the research showed a gender difference but what is difficult to pick out is whether women are having more nightmares or remembering them better.

 

"This fits in with what's in the literature.

 

"Women's sleep tends to be more disrupted and they have more insomnia.

 

"And more frequent wakening could cause them to pick up on the dream.

 

"But it could be that disturbed sleep is contributing to the fears."

 

He added that nightmares in everyone were probably more common than people realised as they are quickly forgotten about.

 

The relation of nightmares being higher in women and their hormones may be only a part of this issue. It should be kept in mind that while women may have more biological ability to retain memory of their dreams, including nightmares, there may be a personal or even cultural level at play.

Depending on the type of nightmare there may be many contributing factors to the illusion one produces in their head. It may also be as simple as men are less likely to admit or recall a nightmare. The first displaying a personal interference. The social image women and men react to may cause either to either recant their dream or not.

 

While it is not doubted scientifically that women are more biologically prone to insomnia and restlessness, these reasons alone may be the highest contributors to the issue of the condition the actual dream takes on. Many people may suffer from a depressive like state when they lack a necessity of their body's, causing more intense emotion reaction due to an elevated feeling of investment in what is being percieved.

 

Discuss.

 

Sleeping woman and man

[Balderdash]

Well, we're definitely wired in different ways when it comes to things like this. Personally, when I have a disturbing dream, I kind of enjoy it. It's exhilarating in a way that reality cannot possibly be. I don't know how many other men are like me, but I wouldn't imagine that there are very many women who feel like this about their nightmares.

 

Maybe if women are more worried about dreaming, they would be more likely to have unpleasant dreams? I dunno. I'm not a psychologist.

[El Sitherino]

I'm not a psychologist.

 

It never hurts for any of us to start questioning why we are the way we are.

[Inyri]

I'ma guess that women have nightmares more often than men because the men stress the women out. But my perspective might be off.

[Balderdash]

It never hurts for any of us to start questioning why we are the way we are.

I'm making that into a motivator for my wall.

[Rev7]

I'ma guess that women have nightmares more often than men because the men stress the women out. But my perspective might be off.

Good one.

 

I don't know but I know that male and female are made differently, but the same in a sense. We think different and are just different than each other. That is really all that I can think about right now. We are different, but the same. Do you understand what I am saying here?

 

***

[Ctrl Alt Del]

"In terms of processing emotional information, women may be more prone to taking unresolved concerns into their sleep life."

 

Which is a sad thing. For me at least, sleep is a both a rest and a escape from the world and it's problems. Taking assassins, wars, abusers and politics to sleep with me sounds like a disturbing idea.

[Sexy Babe]

I think on the alternative side, women also have more dreams. The connotation that women have more nightmares seems rather negative.

 

Generally, women are more imaginative and have more dreams. The consequence of more dreams is more nightmares. But this shd be taken in context - not sure what the questions in the study mention, but the results can be skewed due to the questions asked.

 

Generally, what is the defintion of a nightmare - an unpleasant dream? makes the person feel bad, sad, nervous, frightened?

 

The objective of the study has to be clear. Oftentimes many research or survey results are ambiguous, but to justify its purpose, it must come up with a conclusion. But what may be more useful is to understand how the process of dreaming works and what is the impact of having more dreams or nightmares or less is better.

 

Once agin, we have one of those man-pluto and women-neptune dichotomy. Studies like these prove to be an interesting read, but focusing on another difference between man-woman or who is more supreme in certain areas basically re-emphasises what we already know - man is yang and woman is yin.

[Bee Hoon]

I've noticed that if I take naps on hot afternoons and have a dream, it'll be a nightmare.

 

So yeah, temperature:P

[El Sitherino]

man is yang and woman is yin.

 

True indeed the fixation is on the negativity of a nightmare, but I think we can chalk that up to sensationalism.