The Economist1d ago
Paying attention to nightmares may be a good idea. Recent research shows frequent nightmares are stronger predictors of early death than smoking, obesity, poor diet or sloth https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/08/08/are-nightmares-bad-for-your-health?taid=69d070b81646ae00010c0729&utm_campaign=editorial-social&utm_content=discovery.content&utm_medium=social-media.content.np&utm_source=twitter
Are nightmares bad for your health?

If you have them often, the answer seems to be yes

The Economist
Show threadFritz Adalis1d ago
@TheEconomist @guyjantic
Well, shit. I don't smoke at least.
Show threadProto Himbo European

@FritzAdalis @TheEconomist That's a good thing!
I don't want to do whatever 12-second action would let me read this article, but from previous knowledge I suspect this isn't just "frequent nightmares." My guess (a little wild, but not without some basis) is that this is about night terrors or possibly a pattern of nightmares kind of like night terrors that was previously not well understood. Night terrors are not normal nightmares, IIRC: they happen during different sleep phases than normal nightmares (I think one of the slow-wave "deep sleep" phases, not REM), and even years ago when I last looked at this there was evidence they were manifestations of something fundamentally different going on with brains, I think subcortically. Any time you get a pattern of brain-related differences not well understood, not easily treated, and linked to something subcortical, it seems there's a pretty good chance it's part of a pattern of alternative brain development. Like mutations in DNA (and probably often connected to them), alternative brain development is mostly pretty bad. The alternatives we recognize as not being bad (and often super good) are incredibly rare, historically/genetically speaking, I think.

Anyway, if you just have bad dreams sometimes you're probably fine. Even if you have night terrors, the fact that you're (presumably) an adult probably means you dodged most of the danger, too. And statistics? Psh! Who even cares about those?

Apr 5 at 1:18amWeb
Show threadFritz Adalis20h ago

@guyjantic @TheEconomist
Oh, Night Terrors. I don't remember them, but I had them as a child, and so did both my children. Sitting there, eyes open, screaming incoherently. Having them drink some water usually helped. Fortunately they went away.

I was just being snarky though. Most of the dreams I remember are mostly confusing and oddly consistent with previous dreams, and leave me wondering what they're about. Except the ones where I'm searching the dream world for a toilet that's not broken, I know what those are about.

Show threadProto Himbo European19h ago
@FritzAdalis @TheEconomist lol. I've definitely had the toilet dreams. I only hope that someday, when I'm too old to wake up in time, I'm also too old to care that I wet the bed. The night terrors thing: I remember that a lot of these things aren't particulary ominous if they go away in childhood.