Nothing ruins a good night’s sleep like a nightmare. While we all have them and they can be about anything, it turns out, some nightmares are much more common. To find out what wakes us up in the middle of the night with our hearts pounding, Amerisleep surveyed 2-thousand adults about their nightmares.
- The research reveals some gender differences in the type of nightmares people experience. Women are more likely to have a bad dream about a loved one dying and men tend to have more about technology fails or bugs crawling on them.
- According to sleep expert Dr. Deborah Lee, nightmares are most commonly triggered by real-life stress.
- So, what nightmare do people have most frequently? Falling, which over 64% of respondents have experienced.
- Even though it’s so common, experts aren’t quite sure why so many of us dream about falling. One theory suggests it could be that when your muscles relax as you start to snooze, your brain interprets it as a real fall, while another theory is that dreams about falling are related to your nervous system winding down for the night.
The Top 12 Most Common Nightmares
- Falling – 64.7%
- Being Chased – 63.3%
- Death – 54.9%
- Feeling Lost – 53.8%
- Being Trapped – 52.4%
- Getting Attacked – 49.5%
- Missing an Important Event – 43.7%
- Waking Up Late – 42.6%
- Death of a Loved One – 35.8%
- Being Injured – 35.1%
- Losing Teeth – 34.3%
- Natural Disaster 31.9%
Source: NY Post