According to the study at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, females find it harder to switch off their emotions at the end of the day.

"From our results it appears that men and women differ in the frequency of nightmares - women have more - and women perceive those nightmares to be more emotionally intense," said Jennifer Parker, the lead researcher.

"I believe these results show that women carry over their waking concerns into their dream life more so than men do, and they appear to have more difficulty with 'switching off' their concerns," stressed the psychology lecturer at the university, who carried out the research over five years.

Based on a study of 193 men and women, the research suggested that 19 per cent of male students reported having a nightmare compared to 34 per cent of female.

Parker said the interesting thing is that while men and women are experiencing the same things, "women are experiencing them more intensely". "I think that women use their dreams as a subconscious coping strategy," she stressed.

"Women had more unpleasant dreams than men and unpleasant dreams contained more misfortune, self-negativity and failures," she was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The study divided women's nightmares into three categories: being chased or life threatened, losing a loved one, or confused dreams.