women experience far more terrifying nightmares than men, a study has found

[The Straight Story]

Sleep is scarier for women


WOMEN experience far more terrifying nightmares than men, a study has found.

Their dreams are also more intense and leave more of an impression when they wake up, scientists say.

Psychologists say changes in a woman's body temperature, caused by her monthly cycle, are responsible for increasing the number of vivid and disturbing dreams.

In the findings from a study of 170 volunteers at the University of the West of England, study controller Jennie Parker said: "We found that women reported significantly more nightmares than men."

When asked to record their most recent dream, 19 per cent of male students reported having a nightmare, compared with 30 per cent of women.

The study also found that women's dreams were more emotional.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,26278,24330819-5007185,00.html

[LynzM]

1. Huh, I can believe it...

I've had nightmares that woke me up sobbing, and spent years of my life where everyone I loved died in my dreams, generally in violent ways that I was an observer to...

[The Straight Story]

2. But all your dreams about me were pleasant right?

:rofl:

[cobalt1999]

3. Well, that explains a lot.

Like why my wife can be really mad at me for something I've done in her dreams.

[Raksha]

4. I have no problem at all believing that. n/t

[Runcible Spoon]

5. my fiance always complains he rarely dreams.

given some of my epic nightmares, I wonder why he wants to. Actually, as terrifying as nightmares are, I love vivid dreams and will take the good and the bad. Interesting article.

[Dogtown]

6. Not empiric

Impossible to qualify "more emotional" other than through biometric data; anecdotal evidence such as that used is unreliable since it is filtered through the respondent's verbal replies.


My wife, for example, never remembers her dreams. If queried, she would reply she has few if any nightmares. She may, however, just not remember them.

I'm very suspicious of "studies" of this nature. In order to protect future grants, *some* results must be published.


I'm doubly suspicious if the claimed results back up a cultural prejudice; ie, "women are more emotional than men (pssst, it's because they *menstruate*. It attracts bears, you know!)".

[emmadoggy]

7. Makes sense to me!

My husband rarely ever remembers having any dreams at all. I have always had "dream spurts" (:P ). Basically, I go through a period now and then where every night for 3-4 nights, sometimes a week or so, I will have many dreams each night and they will all be very intense/vivid/disturbing/just-plain-weird. I have said for years that I think it is related to my cycle in some way - seems like it is usually during the week before my period. Doesn't happen every month, but frequently. Thankfully, I have other times when I don't dream much at all (or don't remember them).

And I have had many dreams wherein my husband or one of my children (usually my son) are killed or severely injured - which I usually witness in the dream. Those are the worst and I usually end up waking up with a jolt, my heart pounding, sometimes even crying. Hate those.

[scheming daemons]

8. A woman, Palin, has caused a man, me, to have VERY terrifying nightmares