Washington: A new study has found that dream-enacting behaviours are common in healthy young adults, but the prevalence of specific behaviours differs between men
and women.
In their study, researchers have found that 98 per cent of subjects reported experiencing one of seven subtypes of dream-enacting behaviour at least "rarely" in the last year, the `Sleep` journal reported.
The most prevalent behaviour subtype was "fear", with 93 per cent reporting they had felt signs of fear in their body after awakening from a frightening dream.
Seventy-eight per cent reported that they had awakened from an erotic dream to find that they were sexually aroused; 72 per cent had awakened from a happy dream to find that they were actually smiling or laughing.
Each of the other four behaviour subtypes was reported by more than 50 percent of participants: They awakened from a dream to find that they were talking, crying, acting out an angry or defensive behaviour such as punching or kicking, or acting out other movements such as waving or pointing.
Women reported more speaking, crying, fear and smiling/laughing than men, and men reported more sexual arousal, the study found.
According to the researchers, the findings suggest that dream-enacting behaviours are common in the general population but are difficult for subjects to identify if detailed descriptions of the behaviours are not given.
Lead author Tore Nielsen of Université de Montreal in Canada said: "Normal episodes are usually extremely mild, for example, briefly jerking an arm or leg while waking up from a nightmare, once or twice a year.
"This is far different from RBD cases, which are typically very intense, and might involve repeatedly flailing an arm or a leg or smashing into something in the middle of a
dream, not waking up easily from it, with occurrences several times a month."
PTI
