Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: MarioWorldGamer on 31/07/2016 23:46:27

Title: Is it worse to experience a negative emotion in a nightmare or while conscious?
Post by: MarioWorldGamer on 31/07/2016 23:46:27
Is it worse to experience an intense negative emotion in a nightmare or to experience that same emotion at the same intensity while awake?  Does being fully conscious somehow make the emotional experience worse?  Or would both emotional experiences be just as bad?
Title: Re: Is it worse to experience a negative emotion in a nightmare or while conscious?
Post by: Atomic-S on 03/08/2016 06:17:34
Well, if it happens in a  nightmare, there is the possibility of waking up and finding that it did not happen.
Title: Re: Is it worse to experience a negative emotion in a nightmare or while conscious?
Post by: MarioWorldGamer on 11/08/2016 19:36:03
I've had horrible nightmares and I don't wish to experience those feelings just as they were in my nightmares during a near death experience.  Some people who have ndes have distressing ones in which they experience those feelings just as they were in their nightmares.

I was wondering if the prefrontal cortex being offline during the dream state makes emotional experiences during nightmares worse than they would be in waking life.  When, for example, I am fully awake and my prefrontal cortex is on, then any unpleasant emotional experiences I have here in my waking life are just simply unpleasant experiences no matter how intense they are.

But the emotional experiences in my nightmares are far worse than any emotional experience I could possibly have here in my waking life and I was wondering if it has something to do with the prefrontal cortex being offline during the dream state that makes those emotional experiences worse.

So if I were to have a distressing nde in which I am fully conscious during the experience where my prefrontal cortex is fully on, then I was wondering if any distressing emotional experience I were to have won't be that bad as what I would experience during my nightmares.

People are more conscious than normal waking conscious during ndes and, even though they report very intense negative emotional experiences during distressing ndes, I was wondering if those emotional experiences aren't as bad as they are in nightmares since these people are more conscious than normal.  Their prefrontal cortex is more active than normal.