ELi5: Do you get the same benefits from sleep if you’ve had a nightmare?
In: 1454
How about if you are dreaming that you can’t get to sleep?
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The stress you experience in a dream is equal to the stress in your waking life. So a nightmare does affect you negatively based on the emotions in the dream (fear, stress, etc). That’s why you will wake up in a cold sweat and a pacing heart because physiologically it is the same.
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