Why do we have nightmares?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2024

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ahhh! There is nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night after a nightmare. Your heart is pounding, you’re all sweaty and suddenly your room seems so dark. Sometimes, you’re almost too scared to close your eyes and try to fall back asleep. What’s the point of these scary dreams anyway? Is there a reason we have them at all? We reached out to sleep scientist Ketema Paul to get the answer.

Got a question keeping you up at night? Send it to us at brains on dot org slash contact and we’ll wake you up with the answer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the brains behind brains on, this is the moment of um.
0:03.0	Moment of Um, um, come to you from 8 PM Studios. I'm Nico Gonzales Whistler.
0:18.0	I'm recording from the annual Brainson Team Slumber Party.
0:25.0	Last year, someone got up in the middle of the night and drank the entire bottle of maple syrup.
0:31.0	I was saving it for our morning waffles. No one would own up to it though, which
0:36.0	leaves just one explanation. A sleep walker walks among us. So this year I'm going to stay up all night. Just in case it has...
0:48.0	Ah, ah, get it off me, get it off me, no, no.
0:51.0	Standin, wake up.
0:52.6	zombie flamingos, healthy breakfast cereal.
0:56.0	Ah, Penelope, where are you?
0:58.0	Sandin, it's okay. It was, it was just a bad dream.
1:01.0	Oh, man, I hate nightmares. Why can't all my dreams be about flying? Or playing
1:07.9	guitar in front of a packed stadium full of adoring fans. Or flying while playing the guitar in front of a packed stadium of adoring
1:16.5	fans.
1:17.5	Actually, a listener recently wrote to us asking the same thing.
1:21.5	I'm sage. Why do we have nightmares? The reason we
1:32.2	have nightmares is because we dream and we all dream as far as we know and we dream every night and our dreams cover the full range of emotion,
1:44.1	happiness, anger, disappointment, joy, reward,
1:49.6	and probably cover those full range of emotions every night.
1:55.0	My name is Kautama Paul.
1:57.0	I am a professor of integrative biology and physiology.
2:01.0	My area of expertise is in sleep and circadian rhythms and I work at University of
	...

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