Talk:Nightmare

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Contents 1 How to avoid nightmares in the 19th century 2 Nightmare Pictures 3 Why two ? 4 Removed sections 4.1 Etymology 4.2 Folk remedies 5 Categorization 6 Scientific information? - Article not about its subject 7 Nightmares: one of the bodies defence mechanisms?

[edit] How to avoid nightmares in the 19th century

From the 1881 Household Cyclopedia.

Great attention is to be paid to regularity and choice of diet. Intemperance of every kind is hurtful, but nothing is more productive of this disease than drinking bad wine. Of eatables those which are most prejudicial are all fat and greasy meats and pastry. These ought to be avoided, or eaten with caution. The same may be said of salt meats, for which dyspeptic patients have frequently a remarkable predilection, but which are not on that account the less unsuitable.

Moderate exercise contributes in a superior degree to promote the digestion of food and prevent flatulence; those, however, who are necessarily confined to a sedentary occupation, should particularly avoid applying themselves to study or bodily labor immediately after eating. If a strong propensity to sleep should occur after dinner, it will be certainly bettor to indulge it a little, as the process of digestion frequently goes on much better during sleep than when awake.

Going to bed before the usual hour is a frequent cause of night-mare, as it either occasions the patient to sleep too long or to lie long awake in the night. Passing a whole night or part of a night without rest likewise gives birth to the disease, as it occasions the patient, on the succeeding night, to sleep too soundly. Indulging in sleep too late in the morning, is an almost certain method to bring on the paroxysm, and the more frequently it returns, the greater strength it acquires; the propensity to sleep at this time is almost irresistible. Those who are habitually subject to attacks of the night-mare ought never to sleep alone, but should have some person near them, so as to be immediately awakened by their groans and struggles, and the person to whom this office may be entrusted should be instructed to rouse the patient as early as possible, that the paroxysm may not have time to gain strength.

[edit] Nightmare Pictures

It's kind of misleading that there are pictures of people experiencing sleep paralysis when the topic is in fact nightmares. Though the two are similar, they're quite different.

As originally defined by Dr.Johnson ih his Dictionary and understood by Erasmus Darwin, Henry Fuseli, and others, they are the same phenomenon. Jclerman 01:17, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

With all due respect, I have experienced nightmares, night terrors, sleep paralysis, lucid dreams, regular dreams, and a large combination of the above. I have researched dreaming, lucid dreaming, nightmares and insomnia for my psych university studies (as well as for personal interest), read countless articles pertaining to dreams and dream related material, and can tell you that sleep paralysis and nightmares are uncategorically different and that empirical psychological studies recognise them as such. The terms 'sleep paralysis' and 'nightmare' may indeed have had the same meaning at some point in the distant past, but a lot of advances have been made in the area of dream research over the past 15 years. I really can't stress how incredibly inaccurate it is to use the terms 'sleep paralysis' and 'nightmare' interchangably. In addition, I'm fully confident that our understanding and definition for these two terms have altered somewhat since their initial conception in, what... the 1700's? --Rathilien 02:54, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

1: I don't believe the terms are currently used interchangably without qualification. If you find it to be otherwise please quote the place/source for correction/clarification.

2: Please quote references for your other statements, in order for the information to be incorporated into the article.

Jclerman 18:49, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Why two ?

Why are their two different versions of the same painting? raptor 13:22, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Because the artist painted two different versions. 69.9.28.7 13:29, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed sections

I have removed the following sections, because they are copyvios taken from this site. If someone wants to rephrase them to aviod the ©-violation – be my guest. I also added a link to the site, as it was very informative. --Salleman 16:22, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

The "mare" in "nightmare" is not a female horse, but a mara, an Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse term for a female spirit that sat on sleepers' chests, causing them to have bad dreams.

A nightmare is called a mareridt in Danish, a cauchemar in French, a pesadilla in Spanish, and an Alpdruck or Alptraum in German. The Alp is a demonic being which presses upon sleeping people so that they cannot utter a sound. These attacks are called Alpdrücke (nightmares). In Italian, the word incubo recalls the Incubus, a demon supposed to lie upon sleepers, especially women, and rape them.

[edit] Folk remedies

A folk remedy has it that by stopping up the keyhole, placing one's shoes with the toes facing the door, and then getting into bed backwards one can protect oneself against nightmares or "Mortriden." [mare rides]. Or one can put something made from steel, for example an old pair of scissors, in one's bed straw. A third remedy suggests that a person suffering from nightmares should urinate into a clean, new bottle, hang the bottle in the sun for three days, carry it—without saying a word—to a running stream, and then throw it over one's head into the stream.

[edit] Categorization

I don't want to keep clashing with [User:Jclerman|Jclerman]] here, but categorizint nightmares into Category:Neuroscience is just too broad. In essence, just about any human event can be categorized into "neuroscience". I recategorized this into the more specific Category:Sleep disorders. Semiconscious (talk · home) 09:34, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

The nightmare (and its "menagerie" of hag, mara, incubus, succubus, and hundred of other "entities" appear to dreamers during episodes of the "nightmare (in the original, i.e. older meaning of the term as used by Johnson, Erasmus Darwin, and Fuseli)" which has been called, by Mary Shelley, "waking dream". It is considered only in a few cases a sleep disorder. Thus the entry under "notes" in the article. Jclerman 10:20, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

See references in the Hag article. Jclerman 13:44, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Clearly we disagree. I'm not sure why you continue to reference Mary Shelley as though she is an expert on the matter of neuroscienctific principles. The papers you reference do not have anything to do with the folkloric creature "Nightmare". I've taken this to arbitration, so it's a moot point now. I'm sorry I'm not explaining my self in such a way as to make you truly understand what I'm trying to express. Semiconscious (talk · home) 07:43, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

I must agree with Semiconcious here. There is a fair amount of neuroscientific research into dreaming and nightmares, but if there is a more specific category available it should go there. I don't disagree with making the category Sleep disorders a subcategory of Category:Neuroscience. JFW | T@lk 16:28, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

• Category:Psychology also makes much more sense than Neuroscience. They are different topics entirely, and this article would be more appropriate there. Semiconscious (talk · home) 20:28, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Scientific information? - Article not about its subject

There's not enough scientific information here about nightmares.

there's hardly any important information it seems.

I agree

I am absolutly astounded by how bad this article is. It has almost nothing to do with its subject. Mostly it talks about sleep paralysis (which I probably spelled wrong) which is a totally differant thing (noticable from the fact that it is called sleep paralysis and not nightmares). This article could be almost entirly scrapped and started over.--Matt D 19:32, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Couldn't agree more. As noted above, the article is mostly about Sleep paralysis, which already has its own article, and mentions almost nothing about actual nightmares . I vote for getting that tag on the page that says the article needs an expert (Sorry, I don't know wikipedia enough to know the term...), and having said expert rewrite most if not all of the article. --Devnevyn 10:35, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Yet another voice saying this article is complete garbage. Who had the bright idea that the article about "Nightmare" should be about its usage 1-2 centuries ago? The only thing in the entire article that actually talks about nightmares (current usage) is the introduction! Beyond the etymology of the term, which we will want to keep, the historical usage is the least significant part of any reasonable article. Any other votes for scrapping this article? I'm thinking dropping it completely would be appropriate. Is there another version out in Wikipedia-land somewhere that might provide real information?

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.2.106.74 (talk) 22:32, 1 March 2007 (UTC).

nightmare defined by the M-W online:

nightmare

One entry found for nightmare.

Main Entry: night·mare

Pronunciation: 'nIt-"mer

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from 1night + 1mare

1 : an evil spirit formerly thought to oppress people during sleep

2 : a frightening dream that usually awakens the sleeper

3 : something (as an experience, situation, or object) having the monstrous character of a nightmare or producing a feeling of anxiety or terror

Jclerman 05:11, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I put it there. --Shay Guy 03:28, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nightmares: one of the bodies defence mechanisms?

In the instant that i am woken by a nightmare, my first sensation besides panic, is of excessive heat. This has become such a noticable occurance that I can only conclude that the purpose of the nightmare was to wake me up to prevent damage to my body or brain. The cause of the heat was not illness but external factors, i.e. too many blankets, the heating left on, the cat sleeping on me! Thus after being woken and feeling hot, I removed the cause of the heat and returned to peaceful sleep. Are nightmares warnings that our brains are overheating? Is it a biological safety device? The thought intrigues me. Could we be causing the nightmares of our children and babies by trying too hard to keep them warm and tucked in at night? Any thoughts? 144.134.135.148 02:02, 11 March 2006 (UTC) Anne.