{"id":3868,"date":"2021-05-20T16:07:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T09:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nhatamlyhoc.com\/?p=3868"},"modified":"2025-09-23T03:42:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T03:42:47","slug":"nightmare-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/nightmare-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Nightmare Disorder: Symptoms, Causes, and When to seek help"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learn about nightmare disorder, its symptoms, causes, and when to consult a therapist to improve sleep quality and daytime functioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Nightmare Disorder?<\/b><\/h3>\n

A nightmare is a disturbing dream that causes anxiety or fear and wakes you up. Nightmares are common in children but can occur at any age. Occasional nightmares are usually not a cause for concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nightmare disorder occurs when nightmares happen frequently, cause distress, disrupt sleep, impair daytime functioning, or create a fear of going to sleep. It can significantly affect both children and their caregivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Symptoms<\/b><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • More likely to occur in the second half of the night.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Vivid, real-feeling dreams often about threats or danger.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Waking up and difficulty falling back asleep.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, or disgust.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Sweating or rapid heartbeat upon waking.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Clear memory of the dream causing distress.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Nightmare disorder is considered when:<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Occurrences are frequent.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • There is significant daytime distress or fear of bedtime.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Concentration, memory, or functioning at work, school, or socially is impaired.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Daytime sleepiness, fatigue, or low energy is present.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      When to See a Therapist<\/b><\/h3>\n
        \n
      • Nightmares are frequent and persistent.<\/span><\/li>\n
      • Regularly disrupt sleep.<\/span><\/li>\n
      • Cause fear of sleeping or behavioral issues during the day.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Causes<\/b><\/h3>\n

        Nightmare disorder is a type of <\/span>parasomnia<\/b>, a sleep disorder involving undesirable experiences during sleep or upon waking. Possible triggers include:<\/span><\/p>\n

          \n
        • Stress or anxiety:<\/b> Daily problems, major life changes.<\/span><\/li>\n
        • Trauma:<\/b> Accidents, abuse, PTSD.<\/span><\/li>\n
        • Sleep deprivation or irregular sleep schedules.<\/b><\/li>\n
        • Medications:<\/b> Certain antidepressants, blood pressure meds, beta blockers, Parkinson\u2019s drugs, smoking cessation drugs.<\/span><\/li>\n
        • Substance use or withdrawal:<\/b> Alcohol or recreational drugs.<\/span><\/li>\n
        • Other disorders:<\/b> Depression, heart disease, cancer, or other sleep disorders.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Scary media:<\/b> Reading frightening books or watching scary movies before bed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Learn about nightmare disorder, its symptoms, causes, and when to consult a therapist to improve sleep quality and daytime functioning. What is Nightmare Disorder? A nightmare is a disturbing dream that causes anxiety or fear and wakes you up. Nightmares are common in children but can occur at any age. Occasional nightmares are usually not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":17189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"17","footnotes":""},"categories":[186,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentalemotional_health","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychologistvietnam.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}