U.S. Study

• A study at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics in 1996, looked at links between migraines and unpleasant dreams and found a significant relationship between the two.
  
  

Findings

• The study found that dreams that featured the emotional stressors of misfortune, anger, aggression and apprehension acted as predictors of nocturnal migraines.
  
  

German Study

• A German study reported in Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie in 2000 looked at the connection between migraines and the types and qualities of dreams through case studies.
  
  

Migraine Aura

• Sometimes dreams contain portions of a migraine aura, a haze that sometimes contains colored lights that varies from person to person, according to the German study. This can be a predictor of waking with a migraine.
  
  

Bizarre Dreams

• In addition, the German study found that nocturnal migraines can also cause bizarre dreams. These dreams are typically complicated and intense and are often nightmares.