Distressing dreams in trauma survivors: using a sleep diary mobile app to reveal distressing dream characteristics and their relationship to symptoms and suicidal ideation in trauma-exposed adults
SLEEP Advances January 1, 2025 Anne Richards, Anthony Santistevan, Miles Kovnick et al. 8 citations
Trauma nightmares that closely replicate a real traumatic event are especially linked to next-day distress and suicidal thoughts, more so than other dream features. Subjective dream length, post-dream arousal, and distress severity also independently predict daytime symptoms. The findings highlight the value of measuring specific dream characteristics to understand nightmare effects and their connection to suicidal ideation, and support the use of mobile app sleep diaries for collecting detailed, real-time data.