Nightmare disorder, also called dream anxiety disorder, is exactly what it sounds like: when a person is plagued with frequent distressing dreams that are so upsetting, the negative effects spill into real life. What a…nightmare. But what makes someone prone to this, while another person has consistently blissful dreams?
In a new study in NeuroImage: Clinical , researchers found that people with nightmare disorder have an increased response to sensations in their bodies during REM sleep (the phase of sleep when we dream the most), which might lead to them being susceptible to bad dreams.