導(dǎo)讀：許多人壓力大的時(shí)候晚上往往會(huì)做噩夢(mèng)，雖然半夜被噩夢(mèng)驚醒的感覺(jué)并不好，但這或許是大腦在幫助你釋放壓力……

We all know the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night with a pounding heart and sweaty palms. Relax， you say to yourself—it was just a bad dream. Well， it may be that you really should relax， because nightmares might actually be good for you.

According to New York magazine， bad dreams can improve your mental health. A bad dream tends to be based on a real-life concern， for example， an approaching test or a fear of a person. To eliminate these worries the brain turns the dream into a story in the form of a bad dream.

How does this help your mental health？ A bad dream enables you to distance yourself from your anxieties， and turn something youre worried about now into a memory. The result is that when you wake up youre able to move forward and face the future.

A study featured in The Atlantic magazine， showed something similar. In a survey of more than 700 French students taking a medical school entrance exam， over 60 percent had negative dreams about the test the night before. These included not finishing on time， leaving a question blank， or being late. Those who reported dreams about the exam， even bad ones， did better on it than those who didnt， suggesting that nightmares do in fact prepare us for the future.

“We think nightmares are so common that they have some purpose to process stressors，” Anne Germain， director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Center at the University of Pittsburgh， told CNN.

So， the next time you lie awake at night after a bad dream， remember that it may be the brains way of putting your fears behind you and readying you for the future. Although a nightmare may make you afraid in the short term， it might be helping you to move on from the bad stuff you might be facing in the real world. Perhaps we should try to accept our nightmares rather than allow them to keep us awake. After all， lack of sleep causes far more problems than nightmares do.

我們都知道那種半夜驚醒的感覺(jué)——心臟怦怦亂跳，手心里全是汗。你會(huì)這么對(duì)自己說(shuō)：沒(méi)關(guān)系，只是一場(chǎng)噩夢(mèng)罷了。沒(méi)錯(cuò)，或許你的確應(yīng)該放松下來(lái)，因?yàn)樨瑝?mèng)事實(shí)上可能對(duì)你有益。

據(jù)《紐約》雜志報(bào)道，噩夢(mèng)能夠改善你的心理健康。一場(chǎng)噩夢(mèng)多半來(lái)源于現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中的憂慮，比如，一場(chǎng)即將來(lái)臨的考試，或者害怕一個(gè)人。為了排除這些憂慮，大腦會(huì)將這些事情以噩夢(mèng)的形式呈現(xiàn)出來(lái)。

這如何幫助你的心理健康呢？一場(chǎng)噩夢(mèng)能讓你遠(yuǎn)離焦慮，將你現(xiàn)在所擔(dān)心的事變成回憶。最終當(dāng)你醒來(lái)時(shí)，你就能夠繼續(xù)前行，面對(duì)未來(lái)。

《大西洋月刊》刊登的一項(xiàng)研究表明了相似的結(jié)論。在接受調(diào)查的700多名即將參加一場(chǎng)醫(yī)學(xué)院入學(xué)考試的法國(guó)學(xué)生中，超過(guò)60%的人在考試前一晚做了不好的夢(mèng)，包括時(shí)間到了沒(méi)有寫完卷子，漏寫了一道題，或遲到了，等等。這些稱自己做了關(guān)于考試的夢(mèng)，甚至是噩夢(mèng)的學(xué)生，比那些沒(méi)有做夢(mèng)的學(xué)生在考試中發(fā)揮更出色，這表明噩夢(mèng)的確幫我們?yōu)槲磥?lái)做好準(zhǔn)備。

“我們都覺(jué)得噩夢(mèng)沒(méi)什么特別的，但其實(shí)它們能夠處理壓力源。”匹茲堡大學(xué)睡眠與生物鐘學(xué)中心主任安妮·杰曼在接受美國(guó)有線電視新聞網(wǎng)采訪時(shí)表示。

因此，下次當(dāng)你半夜從噩夢(mèng)中驚醒時(shí)，記得或許這是大腦在讓你放下恐懼，幫你為未來(lái)做好準(zhǔn)備。盡管噩夢(mèng)短時(shí)間內(nèi)會(huì)讓你害怕，但它或許能夠幫助你從現(xiàn)實(shí)世界中遇到的壞事中走出來(lái)。我們或許應(yīng)當(dāng)試著接受自己做的噩夢(mèng)，而不是害怕得睡不著覺(jué)。畢竟，睡眠不足引發(fā)的問(wèn)題要比做噩夢(mèng)多得多。

Word Study

eliminate /?'l?m?ne?t/ v. 排除;消除

Credit cards eliminate the need to carry a lot of cash.