Not sure where to post but here goes. When someone has a

[schmuls]

nightmare, do hormones like cortisol and adrenaline build up to the same extent that they would if the event were really happening? Or does the brain know the event is not really happening? Can someone speed up the elimination of stress hormones in the body?

[crim son]

1. That's a great question that I don' t know the answer to.

I'm guessing, though, that we respond to dreams the same way we respond to real life events.

[HughMoran]

2. My heart races & my BP spikes

If I have a weakness in my system, then I'll find it during these nightmares and will die in my sleep - lol.

[mwb970]

3. Your subconscious mind cannot distinguish between fantasies/dreams and reality.

Picture standing on top of a very tall building, right on the edge, teetering in the breeze as you observe the traffic far, far below. I don't know about you, but my palms started to sweat as I typed that last sentence. But I'm not on a building, I'm sitting at my computer typing - with sweaty palms!

Research shows that piano players get the same benefits from "practicing" by visualizing themselves playing the piece as they do from actually playing it. Other examples abound.

This phenomenon is the basis for the Law Of Attraction (a/k/a "The Secret"), which suggests that re-programming your inner landscape (i.e. your dominant thoughts, many of which are subconscious) will result in a change in your outer landscape. Indeed, this is the only way to change your outer landscape. Otherwise you're just overriding an autopilot setting. The minute you let go, it will snap right back.

Sorry to rattle on, but the subject you raised is of interest to me.

[madokie]

7. My neighbor sent me a link to some pictures of a bike trail somewhere in China

I think it was and I couldn't even look at them. The were along and above a sheer cliff. The title of it was something along the lines of no helmets needed. Although all the cyclist were wearing them.

I like building things of my own creation and I always get a lot of my insight from my sleep time. Sometimes when faced with a daunting task I will run doing it over and over in my mind and then when I get to the place where I am doing whatever it is I already feel, in my mind, that I've done this before. It helps. I've had younger fellow workers ask me how is it that I can do that, whatever it is, when none of us has even done any thing like this before. I tell them its because I've already done this in my minds eye.

[schmuls]

8. My palms sweat overtime whenever I see circus aerialists,

whether they are on tv or in person. I told a psychiatrist about this once, and he was fascinated

[schmuls]

9. What about the second part of my question, is there a way to

speed up the elimination of stress hormones from the body?

[madokie]

10. I know the feeling

When I was much younger I could walk the top 2X4 plate on a being built wall that was two or three stories up without giving it a seconds thought. Now I'd be scooting along on my ass getting splinters way up inside my alimentary canal. Who would have thought that cheek muscles could be so strong?

[schmuls]

11. ha ha! Funny

[madokie]

4. I don't know but one of my real worries is

having a heart attack during one of the nightmares that seem to always be right around the corner. Just about the time I let my guard down there will be another full blown one.

Putting young people in War sucks and on so many levels, one may leave the battle field but the battles sometimes rage on. Bring our kids home and get them out of this cause there is no win in war that is worth the cost, none.

[tekisui]

5. Dreams and memories, even, are the same are real life events to the brain.

It can't tell the difference.

[zipplewrath]

6. You might have it back wards

Some folks opine that your brain effectively works back wards during sleep/dreams. Awake, our bodies react to external stimuli with releases of hormones and steroids. During dreams, our mind creates images to match the adjustments in hormones and steroids our bodies are making. As such, the suggestion is that you don't have a build up of adrenaline because of a nightmare, you have a nightmare because of an adjustment in adrenaline.

[surrealAmerican]

14. I was about to post something to that effect.

The dream reflects the physiological state. This is why you are more likely to have nightmares when you're cold, for instance. It's the "story" your mind constructs to explain why you're shivering.

[schmuls]

15. I suspect the gooey, oily, crispy crust pizza with onions and green

peppers I had before bedtime caused last night's nightmare

[Mari333]

12. beta blockers work

i have severe ptsd, beta blockers work on keeping that cortisol and adrenaline at bay for me.

[pipi_k]

13. Stress is stress

no matter where it comes from.

I have panic disorder, and have had attacks during my sleep. What I mean is, I've had them in dreams, and my body responds the same way it would have if I were awake.


Did you know that there are two kinds of stress?

Distress is the "bad" kind. Divorce. Loss of job. Illness.


Eustress is the "good" kind. Marriage. Birth of child. Buying a new home.


Both can do damage to the body.



Anyway, about dreams and nightmares...there are things that, to this day, I still don't know if they were reality or dreams. One of the weirder dreams I have is about smoking. I quit in 1996. Sometimes I'll dream that I've had a cigarette, then wake up and think that I really did have one. Like, did I sleepwalk and go out to the store for some and then smoke one? It's so real....

:o