Nightmares and Cognitive decline

The article mentioned below was published on 15/7/2024. According to cognitive principle therapy [CPT], unresolved issues cause nightmares. These nightmares are "engrams", that is, physical cells with thoughts and emotions attached and they stay in what "Jung" calls the "Shadow" and are stored in the Remembering Self. In CPT these are called false negatives because the cause of the issues are taken as being a personal attack on the Ego and are not being dealt with by the Real Self. The Ego protects the false negative by creating a false positive around the shadow. All of these processes are in the subconscious mind and create ongoing conflict and a lack of peace. The Real Self [or Super Ego-Freud] attacks the Shadow using dreams and mindwandering. Over the long term this could cause a decline in cognitive resilience due to the amount of internal energy being used. You can't hide from your own "Shadow"

The levels referred to the diagram above can be seen below. Level 1 and Level 2 emotions are experienced in the nightmare state.

Nightmares in midlife may point to future cognitive decline, dementia

by Lori Solomon

Distressing dreams in middle-aged and older adults may indicate a higher risk for future cognitive decline and all-cause dementia, according to a study presented at EAN 2024, the 10th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology, held from June 29 to July 2 in Helsinki.

Abidemi Otaiku, M.D., from Imperial College London, and colleagues examined whether distressing dreams are associated with cognitive decline and dementia in people without Parkinson disease. The analysis included 605 middle-aged adults from the Midlife in the United States study who were followed for more than 13 years, as well as 2,600 older adults from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study and the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, followed for more than seven years.

The researchers found that compared with middle-aged adults who reported having no distressing dreams at baseline, those who reported having weekly distressing dreams had a fourfold higher risk for experiencing cognitive decline (adjusted odds ratio, 3.99). Dementia risk more than doubled in older adults (adjusted odds ratio, 2.21).

"Nightmares have a very strong link with many brain and other conditions, and I strongly believe that nightmares should be asked about more often by physicians," Otaiku said in a statement.