i read somewhere, 4 teens actually died from their nightmares, and thats where wes came up with the idea, true

Question

For the first nightmare on elm street

Answer 1

I remember hearing of this before. There is no scientific proof that anyone has died from nightmares in particular. There have been points where people have died in there sleep who were seen as fitful and restless in their sleep which led people to believe that during a period of REM sleep the person could have experienced a dream that led to cardiac arrest or other health related trauma.

There is another interesting point to make about nightmares. Adults have the ability to cope with nightmares even during the episode because they have developed a mechanism that allows them to recognize that the nightmare is not real. A child, and in rare instances a teenager, have not developed this mechanism, as such if they had a heart defect, which in many cases is a significant factor in children who die in their sleep, it could cause cardiac arrest.

The problem is there is no way to substantiate this due to both how rare these incidents are and that there is no way to judge the mental state of those who have died in there sleep. Though heightened levels of certain chemicals released could be detected and could even help those researching determine levels of stress or emotional distress, even these findings would not be able contribute their death to a nightmare.

I have read about the incident with the Cambodians who had died reportedly from their nightmares. From what I have read it seems it is possible but unlikely that the nightmares themselves were the cause of the deaths. The main cause to me seems to be Post Traumatic Stress and not the dream itself that contributed to their deaths. Plus the fact that all of the deaths happened with in the same ethnic group opens a wide range of questions. Least to say there is a lot of speculation regarding these deaths.

I remember also hearing that Wes Craven had not specifically modeled his movies off any specific events but instead was influenced with the urban legend surrounding teens dieing from their dreams as a whole. As any good writer would do, it is safe to assume he did research the phenomenon.

Good question though.

Answer 2

True.
Wes Craven came up with the idea for A Nightmare on Elm Street while sitting at a restaurant in 1978. He had recently read three separate articles about people who had nightmares and then later died in their sleep.

Answer 3

Wes Craven claimed to have drawn inspiration for this movie from a series of news stories that involved a group of young Cambodians who died from a horrific nightmare. The story goes that first these young, otherwise healthy people would have a horrible nightmare, then refuse to sleep for as long as possible; when they finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion they awoke with a scream, and died from a heart attack.

Answer 4

That is only part of the reason Wes Craven started the Nightmare series. Basically, he had a really bad nightmare one night. When he awoke, he created the character Freddy Kreuger. He then did research regarding death in dreams and found the statistic you mention in your question.

Answer 5

my understanding was that the Nightmare on Elm Street came from actual dreams Wes Craven had... That's where most his ideas came from.

Answer 6

No just a ghost story