A follow-up of a previous trial found that imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) for chronic nightmares remained effective three to five years after treatment, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients who had received IRT maintained reduced nightmare frequency and distress compared to baseline, suggesting the therapy's benefits are robust over time and through stressful life events.
To ensure valid results in clinical studies of dreams and nightmares, researchers must control factors that influence how often people report dreams. This article presents methodological recommendations for group-matching designs and for clinicians monitoring nightmare frequency during interventions. The main factors affecting dream recall include demographic variables, psychological characteristics, pathological dimensions, and substance use. A set of questionnaires is proposed to easily measure these control variables, helping to distinguish genuine treatment effects from confounding influences.