Growing evidence indicates an association between reduced dream recall and depressive symptomatology. Here, we tested the prediction that reduced dream recall in individuals experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD) is due to alterations in circadian and sleep processes. Nine young healthy women (20−31 years) and eight young unmedicated women (20−31 years) diagnosed with MDD underwent a 40 h...
Ageing is associated with marked changes in sleep timing, structure and electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. Older people exhibit less slow-wave and spindle activity during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, together with attenuated levels of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep as compared to young individuals. However, the extent to which these age-related changes in sleep impact on dream...
This thesis deals with the electrophysiological correlates of sleep prior to dream recall and the age-related effects on dream processing. The dual NREM/REM sleep cycle and the circadian modulation of REM sleep sum to generate dream processing. However, little is known about the age-related effects on dream recall during both NREM and REM sleep, which comprises the first aim of this thesis. To...