Many women claim to have during the pregnancy plus dreams and in some stages even more nightmares usual. Do we really dream more during pregnancy or is it a myth? What can we do to avoid nightmares?
Undoubtedly, pregnancy involves a huge amount of changes in the woman's body, and among them, in some cases, is the pattern of sleep. According to the American Pregnancy Association it is common for an increase in nightmares, more intense dreams, ability to remember more dreams than usual, etc.
We do not dream anymore: what happens is that we remember it better
One of the most common sensations is to "dream more", however that is not true.
Throughout a standard night, say about 7 or 8 hours, the human being goes from the MOR phase (or REM, that is, Rapid Eye Movement) to a dream of slow waves. In both stages, dreams are produced as we know them, but for us to remember them, it is necessary to produce a “certain awakening”, said simply to understand us. That is, if during a dream we do not wake up, if it begins and ends up being completely asleep, we will not even realize we have dreamed.
In pregnancy it happens that due to the desire to urinate, hot flashes or cold that suddenly gives us caused by hormones, etc. Our dream is interrupted and we wake up, with the result that we do remember what we were dreaming at that time. That is, we do not dream anymore, is that we remember more dreams because we woke up more.
Why do I have so many nightmares in pregnancy?
The increase in nightmares right now is usually related to a certain anxiety. Eye, do not worry too much, we use the word "anxiety" but not usually at clinical levels, it is something much lighter.
I explain myself: we speak, in a general way, of manageable levels of anxiety and in fact somehow expected levels given the change that is occurring in your life. Pregnancy, with all that implies, expectations about it and of motherhood itself, fears, uncertainty, the desire that everything goes well ... all these variables can make us more nervous than usual, and that, Without a doubt, it translates into our dreams.
This is why it is also common to dream that things happen to the baby, or that we have difficulties with our partner ... These types of dreams are not indicative that we have "secret matters in our unconscious", it is much simpler than that.
The content of dreams is usually formed by those things that we perceive (although we are not aware of it) or those that we think, in the previous days, and of course, that includes our concerns. This is why in dreams, which are still our brain's way of "sorting our ideas" and in some ways "taking out the garbage", certain contents such as the progress of pregnancy or our relationship are included.
In short, as stated by the Perinatal Psychology working group of the Official College of Psychologists of Madrid: dreams in pregnancy are not arbitrary, they respond to the concerns, ideas, thoughts, memories and experiences we have throughout of the day
On the other hand there are factors such as temperature of the room or the time we have dined which can also cause / facilitate that we have nightmares. Now we will see some guidelines to avoid them as much as possible.
What can I do if I have many nightmares?
As we have seen the nightmares during pregnancy are usually related to certain fears and anxiety that appear in the face of the new situation we face. To the extent that we reduce these fears and neutralize them, we will be less likely to have nightmares. How to do it?
- Relaxation: There are very simple relaxes that we can practice before bedtime and that will make our level of physiological activation less, and therefore anxiety is also less. Consult with the trusted specialist to advise you on the relaxation that suits you best: there are muscular ones, through breathing ...
- Talk about what worries you: There is no better way to relieve pressure than by sharing our fears or concerns. On many occasions the mere act of verbalizing it out loud (and listening to you) will cause you to lose “power”. If we also feel supported and heard ... well perfect (here couples have a very important role).
- Write your worries and restructure them: Are they realistic or based on irrational beliefs? Do they have a solution or can we do something about it? What rational alternative comes to mind? In this way we take control of the situation and our thoughts in some way.
In general, since it never hurts, we are interested in favoring sleep hygiene in this stage. Here are a few recommendations to avoid bad dreams:
- Temperature: when the room temperature is high or we wear excess clothing, nightmares often occur.
- Leave a good time between dinner and go to bed: sleep with him full stomach (and / or thirsty) favors the appearance of nightmares. Also, in pregnancy we are often given "attacks of total hunger" at night, right? Try not to be (for many reasons, not just sleep) very caloric or heavy meals.
- Don't turn it on the bed: a good time before going to bed, and of course when we go to bed, we will try not to think about those things that concern us ... Quite the contrary: let's try to be distracted or think about pleasant topics so as not to take "evil" to bed.
- And finally: do not give them more importance than necessary. I mean that they can effectively respond to issues that concern us, but they are still dreams, they are not reality, so we must give them fair importance.
In any case if you feel that your nightmares cause you excessive discomfort, if you can not rest at night, or the level of stress and anxiety overcome you, consult your doctor or psychologist.
Pregnant women are always told that "take advantage and sleep now that when the child comes you will not hit eye”And that, as we have seen, is not always easy: nightmares, awakenings… and well, let's not talk about when the gut is so big that there is no posture in which one is comfortable, right? The good thing is that at least the nightmares we can try to keep at bay ... the thing about the belly is another song.
Photos: Xunbin Pan; shironosov; iStock.com
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