Halloween and Nightmares
Recently I was talking to a couple of friends about Halloween and how they love the holiday. As we continued the conversation, I mentioned how I do not enjoy it, nor do I like it. They looked at me as if I was crazy, but I tried to explain to them that I do not like being scared or watching anything scary.
Besides the candy, costumes, pumpkin lattes, and movies, there are also nightmares or scary dreams that are correlated with this holiday. From when I was a little kid to today, I get scared very easily, so every year during Halloween, I would always be extra careful of my surroundings to make sure nothing was going to pop out. I have always disliked watching horror movies because it would give me nightmares. When waking up from my scary and very vivid dreams, it would take me a long time to get back to sleep. Usually, when I woke up from a scary dream, my mom always told me to think of positive and happy thoughts. I even had a build-a-bear that I would sleep with if I ever woke up from a scary dream. Based on my research, I have found that emotions are correlated to dreams, and since the spooky season is approaching, I believe that the number of scary dreams or nightmares will increase among individuals.
There was a time when I was eleven or twelve years old that I would experience scary dreams four to five times a week. I would not necessarily watch a horror film to experience these dreams. It was a routine for me to wake up from my dreams at around five o’clock in the morning and then not be able to fall back asleep. Also, my dreams always consisted of the same themes and objects: killing, kidnapping, guns, and car accidents. These themes were not just common in my dreams, but to many other individuals. Some of the events that have been reported to occur in individuals’ dreams include being chased, kidnapped, falling, or attacked by some monster. For example, the first time I watched Harry Potter and saw Voldemort, I was terrified. Until today I remember that I had dreamt that I was in the film Harry Potter and was being chased by Voldemort. I find it interesting how the emotions I felt while watching a movie translated into my dreams that I still remember today. The more horror movies I watch, the more my dreams are related to that movie. So, if you watch a scary movie before going to bed and you wake up from a nightmare, it is likely that the contents of the film caused that dream. I would suggest to avoid horror movies at night, even though it is more fun to watch movies when it is dark outside. However, to avoid sleep disruptions from nightmares, what works for me is to think of happy thoughts before sleeping. I feel as though this tricks my brain and makes me experience positive dreams.
