What makes our body decide, ok now it’s time to get up? Why do things like nightmares often allow us to shortcut sleep and wake up early?
In: 217
Everyone gave you a bunch of great answers, so I’ll avoid talking about circadian rhythms and cortisol and melatonin and other things that factor into your sleep schedule, and focus instead on nightmares, specifically ones that tend to wake you up.
Falling is a very common one. When slipping between stages of sleep, sometimes your body has involuntary twitches, and they can be fairly dramatic. We call these hypnic jerks, and it’s thought that the motion causes the sensation of suddenly falling, which translates into your dream. It can be enough to suddenly wake up. Dream interpretation theory says that dreams of falling without stopping or waking up can also be indicative of feeling a lack of control in your life.
Running away from something and suddenly being caught or confronted is also another common waking nightmare, although that one is more straightforward. When dreaming, your brain still ‘responds’ to what you’re perceiving, so if you’re startled in a dream, you’re actually being physically startled, which triggers higher levels of alertness.
Dying is an interesting one. If you die in a dream, you basically always wake up, even if it was a peaceful dream-death. My theory is that our brains don’t know how to simulate death, so when it perceives “dying” in a dream, it sort of freaks out and starts pumping cortisol, which wakes you up.
Any random occurrences of waking up due to a sudden loud noise in your dream was probably a translated noise that actually happened and woke you up, like thunder, a loud car, a slamming door, etc.
Obviously there are more reasons why you might wake up suddenly due to a nightmare, but those are the most common ones that I can think of.
Latest Answers