Dream recall frequency after NonREM and REM sleep awakenings was similar for patients with schizophrenia and controls, matching values for healthy participants. Patients' NonREM sleep narratives were shorter than controls'. Both groups' NonREM reports had fewer words and reportable items compared to their REM reports. Controls more often reported bizarreness in REM than NonREM reports, a difference not seen in patients. Overall, NonREM sleep mentation differed little between groups, and sleep stage cognitive style was comparable, with NonREM reports being more thought-like, less elaborate, and less bizarre than REM reports.
People with schizophrenia report more nightmares than healthy controls, but their overall dream recall, recurrent dreams, and emotional frequency are similar. When dreams are collected in a sleep laboratory, patients' narratives are shorter; after adjusting for length, most content differences disappear except for a higher proportion of unknown characters. Patients rate their own dreams as less bizarre than controls do, even though external judges see similar bizarreness. Eye movement density during REM sleep is comparable between groups, but a link between eye movements and dream content appears only in controls. These patterns suggest that dream content in schizophrenia may reflect disorder-specific neurocognitive processes, particularly emotional processing.