Your nightmares are scary and putting you in an early grave: study

Scared to death? You betcha.Anyone who’s ever had a nightmare knows how much they can absolutely wreck your mood.

That’s because, as neuroscientist Dr.Abidemi Otaiku pointed out: “Our sleeping brains cannot distinguish dreams from reality.”In even more frightening news, Otaiku and his team analyzed the data of over 183,000 adults aged 26 to 86 and 2,400 children aged 8 to 10 and found that adults who suffer nightmares weekly are over three times more likely to die before hitting 70 than those who don’t.

The researchers pointed out that this would make nightmares a stronger predictor of premature death than a poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle or smoking.Tell that to anyone who’s ever said “it was just a bad dream” to you.

“Nightmares often wake us up sweating, gasping for breath and with our hearts pounding — because our fight-or-flight response has been triggered,” Otaiku, a Clinical Research Fellow in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, said in a press release.“This stress reaction can be even more intense than anything we experience while awake.”Researchers assessed the participants’ biological aging by the length of their telomeres — the tiny caps at the ends of your chromosomes that shrink as you age and are tied to diseases like cancer, heart issues and other chronic conditions.Those who experienced night frights regularly had shorter telomeres — showing signs of accelerated biological aging — and a whopping 40% increased chance of kicking the bucket too early.

The researchers posit that this may be due to the increased stress and sleep disturbances — both of which contribute to mortality — brought on by bad dreams.“Nightmares lead to prolonged elevations of cortisol, a stress hormone closely linked to faster cellular aging.For those who frequently experience nightmares, this cumulative stress may significantly impact the aging process,” Otaiku, who recently presented his research at the a...