Lower dream self-efficacy (DSE; the perceived ability to manage or influence dream experiences) and heightened nightmare distress (NM distress) both independently predicted more severe PTSD symptoms and more suicidal thoughts in a trauma-exposed sample of 30 adults. Lower DSE alone predicted greater insomnia severity. The findings suggest that confidence in managing dreams and distress from nightmares contribute separately to posttraumatic outcomes, with dream self-efficacy playing a particular role in sleep disturbances.
Dream-related self-efficacy (DSE) increased after a single session of Targeted Dream Incubation (TDI), a protocol that cues dream reports during hypnagogic sleep and then asks participants to think of a tree. Higher DSE at all time points was significantly negatively correlated with suicidal cognitions one week later, and the increase in DSE from baseline to follow-up significantly predicted lower suicidal cognitions. These results suggest that DSE may be a mechanism through which TDI reduces suicidal thinking, though the small sample of fifteen participants limits generalizability.
Presleep cognitive arousal and longer sleep onset latency predict the occurrence of posttrauma nightmares in male veterans with mixed-trauma history. Physiological presleep arousal was also higher on nights when nightmares occurred. The findings replicate earlier work and suggest that therapies targeting presleep thoughts, time to fall asleep, and physical arousal may help treat posttrauma nightmares, though the small sample of 15 participants warrants cautious interpretation.