Good Question

• Oct 31, 2007 12:09 pm US/Mountain
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  Where Do Nightmares Come From?

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Where Do Nightmares Come From?

DENVER (CBS4) ― Halloween is a great time to think about scary movies and nightmares. CBS4's Alan Gionet went to sleep disorders center at Rose Medical Center to ask a psychiatrist the Good Question: Where do nightmares come from?

"Basically what happens is that when we're in REM sleep, that is the part of sleep that our brain is most active, our frontal cortex shuts down and the frontal cortex is really what is responsible for suppressing the fears and anxieties that we normally have," said Dr. Scott Humphreys. "You're able to say, that's not rational, I'm going to calm down, but at night when your frontal cortex is able sleep, you're unable to do that."

"Do people die in their sleep?" CBS4 asked.

"People do die in their sleep," Humphreys said.

"Would it be connected to nightmares?"

"That's a jump we haven't made yet."

Humphreys did say that reducing stress can improve chances of having pleasant dreams.

"So you want to go to sleep at the same time every night," Humphreys said. "Wake up at the same time every day."

Another way to avoid nightmares is to cut down on spicy foods. Heartburn at night signals a person's body that something is wrong. Sometimes, that can also create a nightmare.

(© MMVII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)