Clinical description of sleep and trauma-related nightmares in a population of French active-duty members and veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
L'Encephale November 1, 2022 J. Hulot, Jean-Baptiste Roseau, D. Gomez-Mérino et al.
Among active-duty service members and veterans treated for PTSD in French military hospitals, sleep quality is severely impaired and trauma-related nightmares are highly prevalent, frequent, and immersive. Of 77 patients, 93.5% experienced traumatic nightmares, averaging 4.7 per week. Mean total sleep time was only 5.3 hours. 31% had fully replicative nightmares and 57.7% had partially replicative ones. Nightmares were associated with very severe PTSD symptoms (mean PCL-S score 62.6) and exacerbated symptoms during and after the nightmare. The authors suggest that long-term traumatic nightmares are a prominent feature of military PTSD and a potential therapeutic target.