Pain is a major cause of people awakening during the night. After a few nights of poor sleep caused by pain, vivid dreams can occur. This is because the brain builds up a sleep debt over time, causing the patient to experience longer periods of dreaming sleep as a payback for missed time due to poor sleep. The condition is sometimes referred to as “rapid-eye rebound.”

Finally, patients who stops taking antidepressant medications may find that they experience rapid-eye rebound during the step-down. This is because those medications often cut short the dream sleep cycle.

Zzz…Zooming Around?

People who act out highly stressful situations in their dreams, such as being attacked or running away from danger, can be the victims of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. This is manifested in what’s known as REM sleep behavior disorder, believed to be a symptom of brain damage in certain critical areas. We all are believed to have a “safety switch” in the brain that stops us from flailing about while we dream. Those who lash out during dreams are believed to be in the early stages of developing Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, and the thrashing may arrive as early as 10 years before the disease symptoms physically manifest themselves. It is believed to be among the earliest warning signs of these neurological diseases, and many physicians believe that early treatment may help lessen the impact of these degenerative conditions.

Nightmare? Order Up!

There have been comic tales for centuries about the effects of meals on the patient’s sleep. But medical researchers now believe that large meals or excessively fatty ones can be retained in the stomach longer, putting pressure on the valve between stomach and esophagus and causing food and acid to backwash, causing heartburn. It also can play a role in awakening someone from the dreaming state of sleep because it arrives in the first few hours after slumber’s onset.