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Nightmare is the term currently used to refer to a dream which causes a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror, or the sensations of pain, falling, drowning or death. Such dreams can be related to physical causes such as a high fever, or psychological ones such as psychological trauma or stress in the sleeper's life, or can have no apparent cause. If a person has experienced a psychologicaly traumatic situation in life, for example, a person who may have been captured and tortured the experience may come back to haunt them in their nightmares. Sleepers may waken in a state of distress and be unable to get back to sleep for some time.

See also

• False awakening
• Hag in folklore
• Lucid dream
• Mare (folklore)
• Mora (mythology)
• Moroi (folklore)
• Night terror
• Nightmare disorder
• Nocnitsa
• Sleep disorder
• Sleep paralysis