#Dreams

A three-year, $1.2 million study conducted by a leading U.S. university is examining how nightmares relate to anxiety and trauma-related disorders. The researchers seek to determine if disturbing dreams are a symptom, a cause, or a warning sign for conditions such as PTSD and anxiety disorders. The insights could influence prevention and treatment approaches worldwide, including in Thailand.

Nightmares occur in humans and animals, yet their origins remain a scientific puzzle. The project brings together neuroscience teams to map the brain mechanisms behind nightmare production and what they reveal about mental health. Researchers say understanding these processes could change how clinicians approach early intervention and care.

A groundbreaking research initiative at Penn State University is poised to unlock new secrets about nightmares and their intricate relationships with anxiety-related mental health disorders—a move that could ultimately shape how conditions like PTSD are predicted, prevented, and managed worldwide, including in Thailand.

Nightmares, those unsettling nocturnal experiences, are a nearly universal phenomenon among humans and many animals. Yet, the question of why dreams—especially bad ones—occur and what purpose they serve has eluded scientists for centuries. Now, thanks to a three-year, US$1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, an interdisciplinary neuroscience team is taking aim at this enduring mystery. According to principal investigators at Penn State, the study aims to illuminate how nightmares emerge and whether they are a symptom, a cause, or even a warning sign for serious mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders (psu.edu).