Are your dreams scaring you? Here's how to avoid violent or sexual dreams

New York: If you are troubled by violent or sexual dreams, avoid watching media with violent or sexual content at bedtime, suggests new research. The violent and sexual media you consume during the day may infiltrate your dreams at night, the study said.

People who reported consuming violent media within 90 minutes of bedtime were 13 times more likely to have a violent dream that night and those viewing sexual media were six times more likely to have a sex-related dream, found the study published online in the journal Dreaming.

"The media we consume can have an impact on us even when we're sleeping," said co-author of the study Brad Bushman, Professor at The Ohio State University in the US.

The study of more than 1,000 Turkish residents also found that the more violent media content they reported consuming on a regular basis, the more often they said they had violent dreams in general.

The same link was found between sexual media content and sexual dreams, although the connection was not as strong.

"Whether we looked at overall media use or media intake for just one day, the result was the same: The media we consume is linked to what we dream about," Jan Van den Bulck, Professor at University of Michigan in the US.

The results suggest one obvious recommendation for those who are troubled by their violent or sexual dreams, according to Bushman.

"It would be good to avoid media with violent and sexual content, especially right before bed," Bushman said.