Can Depression Cause Nightmares?

Can Depression Cause Nightmares? (Answered!)

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Yes, depression can cause nightmares. There are many psychological triggers which lead to nightmares, and depression can induce a number of them. it is not guaranteed that depression will cause nightmares, but it is certainly entirely possible. There are things you can do to treat nightmares, though, if you experience them.

 

So, the simple answer is yes—but not always.

As I said, and as I will repeatedly stress, dreaming is something we are only just beginning to truly understand—indeed, as is the nature of mental health itself.

But if it’s something you’re worried about, hopefully, we can help you to understand it a little bit better.

Let’s take a closer look.

Can Depression Cause Nightmares?

 

Does depression cause nightmares?

The answer is that yes it can, though it doesn’t do so in every case.

Nightmares are a complex and not entirely well-understood phenomenon, but we certainly do know a few basic things about why they occur and what can trigger them.

Depression can cause nightmares in some cases and for some people. Indeed, nightmares are very common in a lot of psychiatric disorders—affecting as many as 70% of patients with broader spectrum personality disorders, and particularly with things like PTSD.

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders and often manifests alongside other conditions, like anxiety.

It is, therefore, highly statistically likely to come with some kind of adjoining issue with nightmares.

But there is no guarantee that your depression will cause nightmares.

You may well find that it doesn’t, at all.

Understanding why this is the case is going to be the first step in resolving the issue, though.

So, let’s look into the mechanisms of dreaming and why depression might lead to increased nightmares.

 

Why does depression cause nightmares?

There are a few possible reasons depression could cause nightmares for you.

As I’ve said, dreams are something we still don’t fully understand.

So, there are many theories but little solid and quantifiable fact.

One of the main reasons depression is likely to cause nightmares is the simple fact of the physical, chemical change in the brain of a depressed person.

Dreaming uses a lot of the same regions of the brain that waking activity does, so if depression affects your waking mind, it will also affect your dreaming mind.

The other main reason is that depression will often have an effect on our sleeping cycle, and how deeply we sleep.

Many cases of depression go hand in hand with difficulty sleeping, if not outright insomnia.

Nightmares and bad dreams are shown to be two-fold more common than in non-depressed, neurotypical people.

So, this goes to show that it is, more than anything, down to the condition itself and not that depressed individuals are simply more predisposed to nightmares because of who they are.

The leading theory on why we dream suggests that dreams are a way for our brains to work out and sort feelings, emotions, and events, figuring out what is significant and what isn’t.

In a depressed brain, emotions, we might say, are somehow inherently more complex and harder to understand.

Thus, our brain spends more time trying to figure it out.

So, the key question—how to manage nightmares when you are suffering from depression.

 

How to stop depression nightmares

There are a number of things you can do to make the depression nightmares easier to manage.

However, I do want to state again that this is a very complex issue, and there’s no guarantee that you can figure it out on your own.

Always talk to your doctor if you feel it is becoming too much.

That said, a couple of basic things you can do to make the nightmares easier start with getting the best night’s sleep.

Firstly, make sure you stick to a regular schedule.

Sleeping and waking up at the same time every night helps your body find its proper rhythm.

General relaxation and day-to-day depression management techniques will be your next line of defence.

Things like meditation and aromatherapy won’t address the root cause of your problems, but they can give the kind of short-term relief that at least let you get a good night’s sleep.

Don’t despair, there are things you can do.

 

Can depression cause night terrors?

Night terrors are fairly rare in adults, and it’s unlikely that depression would lead to night terrors, really.

It’s not impossible, but it’s very unlikely if you don’t already suffer from them.

That said, in children it can be an exacerbating factor.

If your child is having night terrors regularly, you should consider seeing a doctor straight away.

 

Depression can be a hard and lonely road, and often it can feel totally insurmountable.

When you have the added pressure of bad dreams and nightmares on top of that, it really can feel as though you’re all alone.

But rest assured that work is being done every day to help us better understand this phenomenon and that even while that is still ongoing, we have come up with a whole load of ways to help you get by a little bit better.

 

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