Nightmares linked to faster biological ageing and early death

[littlemissmartypants]

Scary dreams disrupt our sleep and elevate our levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which may have serious consequences for our health over time

By Chris Simms

22 June 2025

Having nightmares on a weekly basis seems to accelerate ageing – and could even triple the risk of early death.

“People who have more frequent nightmares age faster and die earlier,” says Abidemi Otaiku at Imperial College London.

Along with his colleagues, Otaiku analysed more than 183,000 adults, aged 26 to 86, who had taken part in several studies. At the start, the adults self-reported how often they had nightmares, and were then tracked for as little as 1.5 years to as long as 19 years.

The researchers found that those who reported having nightmares on a weekly basis were more than three times as likely to die before they turned 70 than those who said they never or rarely had nightmares.Scary dreams disrupt our sleep and elevate our levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which may have serious consequences for our health over time.
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https://www.newscientist.com/article/2485267-nightmares-linked-to-faster-biological-ageing-and-early-death/

[applegrove]

1. I'm f***ed!!

[slightlv]

4. I'm right there with you, apple!

I not only have nightmares, I have true to form night terrors, waking in a screaming fit of rage. And practically every single one of these I'm fighting or screaming at trump. Now tell me I'm not a victim of PTSD?

[applegrove]

6. I don't fight and scream to my knowledge. At least i

Last edited Wed Aug 13, 2025, 10:38 PM - Edit history (1)

don't wake up in a rage. I do sometimes get bruses and I don't know how. I wake up just feeling like I'm getting exploited, set up, gaslighted, persecuted or stalked. I am yelling into a void. I do have ptsd.

[slightlv]

8. One night, when I was housing daughter and 2 grandsons for a short time,

I woke them up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder. My youngest grandson told his mom, "I didn't know grandma even KNEW cuss words like that!" (LOL) Last night, I evidently got into a fight, cause the flashlight on my headboard came falling down on me.

I can usually guess when I've had an "active" night of fighting, even if no one attempts to wake me up... the bed is devoid of cats when I DO wake up. Every once in a while, my "nurse" cat, Bandit, is in my bed attached to my hip. As much as to say, I'm here, Mom... you're okay. I adore my cats. When everything else is falling to pieces, they help keep me sane.

[unblock]

2. Well that'll give me nightmares!

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Snort

[Shell_Seas]

5. Well, I'm fked.

[Bayard]

7. I found out that one of my asthma medications causes nightmares

Nice side effect. I stopped taking it. Now, I only have the occasional nightmare, instead of every night, mostly old PTSD related.