Journal of Sleep Research
January 29, 2019
Annika Gieselmann, Malik Ait Aoudia, Michelle Carr et al.
192 citations
Chronic nightmares arise from an interaction between elevated hyperarousal and impaired fear extinction, facilitated by trait affect distress from traumatic experiences, early childhood adversity, trait susceptibility, elevated thought suppression, and potentially sleep-disordered breathing. Treatment options target nightmare meaning, chronic repetition, or maladaptive beliefs. The paper reviews epidemiological findings, aetiology models for traumatized and non-traumatized individuals, and evidence-based interventions, noting gaps in healthcare provider knowledge and delivery. Future perspectives for nightmare treatment and aetiology research are outlined.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
August 1, 2010
Anne Katrin Kuelz, Ulrike Stotz, Dieter Riemann et al.
14 citations
Dreams of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) contain less positive content than those of healthy individuals. During treatment with exposure and response prevention, OCD-related themes in dreams significantly decrease, supporting the continuity hypothesis that daytime symptoms carry over into dreams. Contrary to expectations, exposure therapy does not make dreams more intense or disturbing. The analysis compared 40 dreams from 9 inpatients, 84 dreams from 10 outpatients, and 63 dreams from 11 healthy controls, with dream reports collected at treatment start and after initial exposure exercises.
Journal of Sleep Research
August 21, 2025
Dieter Riemann, Christoph Nissen, Pierre A Geoffroy et al.
Science fiction frequently uses sleep and dreams to probe questions about consciousness, reality, and technology. This article identifies recurring Sci-Fi themes such as hypno-pedagogics, space hibernation, brain-machine interfaces, electrostimulation, genetic engineering, and the effects of substances on sleep and dreams. The authors compare these fictional concepts with current sleep science to assess their future feasibility. They also examine whether Sci-Fi has inspired real sleep research or merely mirrors existing scientific topics with added fiction.
Psychiatry Research
May 30, 2009
Michael Schredl, Mathias Berger, Dieter Riemann
Trimipramine, a sedating tricyclic antidepressant effective for both depression and primary insomnia, does not affect rapid eye movement sleep unlike most other antidepressants. In a large sample of 3,926 depressive outpatients, treatment over four weeks produced a considerable shift in dream emotions toward the positive end of the scale, paralleling a decrease in symptom severity. The effect on dream recall was small and may be explained by a reduction in negatively toned dreams. These findings support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, showing a close link between waking-life symptomatology and negative dream emotions.