Can PTSD cause nightmares?

Can PTSD Cause Nightmares? (Find Out!)

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PTSD can not only cause nightmares, but is in fact characterized by them. Whereas about 3% of the general population generally suffers from nightmares, anywhere from 52-96% of those with PTSD suffer from nightmares. So, PTSD has an extremely high chance of causing nightmares.

 

PTSD has a very high association with nightmares, then.

There is no two-ways about that.

But that does not mean that those with PTSD suffer alone and with no chance of help.

There are many things you can do to ease the pain.

Let’s look further into this.

Can PTSD cause nightmares?

Can PTSD give you nightmares?

Yes, it can.

In fact, nightmares are typically seen as a characteristic of PTSD.

So, it’s typically not even that one gets nightmares after struggling with PTSD.

It is that PTSD is often diagnosed as a result of nightmares and recurring dreams.

PTSD has profound impacts on the memory centers of the brain, which is where more or less all dreaming happens.

As I mentioned, as many as 96% of PTSD patients suffer from nightmares, bad dreams, and very vivid dreams recalling their trauma.

Dreaming is something that we still don’t fully understand.

As I said, the mechanism of it seems to be some form of memory recall, in which the brain fires up the memory centers of the brain.

Our best theory suggests that dreaming is done as a way for our brain to sort useful memories out from less useful ones.

When someone has experienced trauma, the brain’s memories are profoundly altered.

It becomes harder to work out what is important and what isn’t, and so dreaming becomes incredibly muddled and confused.

Let’s look more closely at why PTSD might cause nightmares.

 

Why does PTSD give you nightmares?

Every night, we go through cycles of sleep.

The deepest of those cycles, REM sleep, is where most of our dreaming occurs.

If our pattern of sleep is affected or disrupted by anything, then this is going to get in the way of ordinary dreaming.

One of the reasons that we feel we have had a particularly bad dream is simply that we were more aware and awake while it was happening.

PTSD can fundamentally get in the way of a good night’s rest night after night.

This is why it can appear to cause nightmares—because it means you cannot sleep soundly.

This is true of many conditions that affect your ability to sleep soundly.

PTSD is different, though, in that it has this effect, but PTSD itself also has profound impacts on the memory centers of the brain where dreaming occurs.

For most sufferers of PTSD, the nightmares will be either reliving the trauma or experiencing something tangentially related.

So, the basic answer is that it’s to do with both how PTSD affects your ability to sleep and how it affects your memory.

Dreaming is a complicated thing, as I’ve said, which we still don’t fully understand. The same is true of PTSD—we still don’t fully understand how it works.

But this is our best working theory.

How, then, can we stop these nightmares?

 

How to stop PTSD nightmares

When it comes to PTSD, it can be very different for different people.

There can be different severities of PTSD, and naturally, how severe it is will affect how easily it can be treated.

The simple answer, though, is psychiatric help. I understand this can be prohibitively expensive, and not everyone has access to it.

But for severe PTSD, you really need medical help to get through it. Even if that is simply speaking to a counsellor.

There’s no overstating the importance of medical, professional help in this case.

That said, there are other things you can do to give yourself a fighting chance of improving your sleep.

Use basic relaxation techniques, such as yoga, meditation and aromatherapy.

Try to stick to a regular bedtime routine, at the same time every day.

These aids will give you a fighting chance of falling asleep more soundly.

 

Does PTSD cause night terrors?

PTSD can cause night terrors in some rarer cases.

Night terrors are quite rare, and typically occur much more in children than in adults.

That said, severe PTSD can cause you to wake up in the night, and it can cause hallucinations.

Night terrors aren’t as clearly defined as nightmares, and it’s unlikely, but PTSD certainly can cause night terrors.

Especially if you are already predisposed to them.

 

Living with PTSD is never easy.

It can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

But there is plenty of things you can do to ease the pain, the number one thing always being speaking to a professional.

No one would suggest living with trauma is a simple thing with a quick fix, or that you can just get yourself cured overnight.

But you’re not helpless, either.

There are many people and organizations out there to help you through your difficulty.

The number one thing to remember is you’re not alone.

 

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