Can White Noise Cause Nightmares?

Can White Noise Cause Nightmares? (Helpful Content!)

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White noise can certainly be enough to interrupt our sleep patterns if it is loud enough or if you are sensitive enough to it. The science on this subject is not completely settled, and while many see the advantages of white noise, others think they could be doing more harm than good.

 

The simple way to look at this is that for some people, white noise machines can interrupt sleep more than they can aid it.

This will lead to increased dreams if not more nightmares.

Again, though, the fact is that white noise can affect people in very different ways, and some think they are generally not a good idea.

Let’s find out more.

Can White Noise Cause Nightmares?

 

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Does white noise give you nightmares?

White noise certainly can increase the likelihood that you will have nightmares, though it is not as simple as saying that white noise will cause nightmares.

There are a number of factors at play which all feed into one another. Let’s first try to understand how dreams work in a general sense.

Sleeping each night involves a number of different cycles, each of which you will go through a number of times.

The deepest cycle of sleep, and the one where most dreaming occurs, is called rapid eye movement sleep.

If this sleep is disturbed by anything external or indeed internal, then we can have greater memory retention of our dreams.

You may have heard it said that we all dream every night—it’s just a case of whether we remember our dreams.

This is broadly true.

White noise machines can, for some people, make sleep less restful than it might be.

This means we are more aware and less deeply asleep during REM sleep, which means we feel our dreams to have been more vivid and even nightmarish.

As you can see, though, the connection isn’t necessarily direct.

Nightmares specifically are generally more likely to be the result of some extended anxiety in our waking life, whether it was conscious or subconscious.

White noise alone, then, is unlikely to cause nightmares, but it may make us more aware of the nightmares we are having.

Dreaming can be very different for any given individual, so white noise’s effects on your dreams can be highly dependent on you as a person.

Some people find it very comforting and drift off into deep sleep—others may simply have gotten to used to it, and are unable to recognize its negative effects.

 

Is it bad to play white noise all night?

There are certainly good reasons to think playing white noise all night is bad for you.

It’s important to stress, though, as I mentioned, that the science is somewhat divided on this question.

With that said, let’s look at why playing white noise all night might not be a great idea.

The biggest and most obvious problem is the auditory effects.

Long-term exposure to white noise that is even slightly too loud can have long-term effects on your hearing.

It could lead to tinnitus and even minor deafness.

This is rare, of course, but worth taking into account, especially given that white noise machines are often used for children.

There are also studies to suggest that constant, high-level white noise exposure can lead to stressful reactions.

These can manifest in a number of ways, but perhaps the main way is simple psychological arousal.

This naturally can have a big effect on your dreams, as this psychological stimulation does not only happen when you are awake but when you’re asleep, too.

Unfortunately, we have many studies offering contradictory answers to the question of whether white noise at night is a good idea.

For that reason, I would advise you not to rely on it if you can find an alternative, whether it’s for the good of your dreams or just your ears.

 

Can white noise cause anxiety?

In the broadest sense, we might say that white noise can indeed cause anxiety.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a direct empirical link between white noise and an increased state of psychological arousal in some people, even when asleep.

This heightened awareness can lead to anxiety, even if simply by making us less well-rested in our waking life.

Anxiety can be a very serious psychological condition, though, and white noise is certainly not going to be the only cause of such a condition.

 

Does white noise cause night terrors?

White noise has not been shown to have any connection to night terrors.

Night terrors are very uncommon to experience for those who are not already predisposed to them.

That said, white noise machines are often used for children, children also being the most common sufferers of night terrors.

White noise can be a sensitive topic in such cases, then, and you should always consult a doctor before trying it out with a child suffering from night terrors.

On the other hand, you really have nothing to worry about unless you are already prone to night terrors if you want to use a white noise machine yourself.

 

White noise is a tricky question, then.

There are plainly advantages for some of us or no one would use them.

However, there are also a number of risks involved with both their long and short term use.

Forgetting, for now, the affect it might have on your hearing, there are several ways it might affect your brain, your sleep, and thus the quality and content of your dreams.

 

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