A recent article published by the BBC highlighted the benefits of having nightmares: how these bad dreams were good practice for potentially frightening situations during our waking hours. Additionally, this exercised the part of the brain that manages fear, allowing for more practice so that it prepares individuals for fear situations, allowing them to think more clearly and attend more consciously to the fear response. However, there is a limit to how frightening a dream could be: once a dream became too upsetting, it became disruptive to the sleeper and had a prolonged negative impact that continued after waking up. Overall, nightmares allow for emotion regulation at a more conscious level but are limited once a certain level is passed.
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