There is currently no consensus on the definition of nightmares. Most participants define nightmares as “bad dreams” with intense, distressing emotions. Per the DSM-5, nightmares are distressing dreams, but to be diagnosed with nightmare disorder, the dreams must awaken the dreamer. Surprisingly, research has not evaluated the characteristics dreamers use to categorize their nightmares....
Many studies involving the relationship between personality and nightmare frequency (NF), common in cross-sectional data, have only looked at neuroticism in isolation, assumed a linear relationship, or did not include nightmare disorder index (NDI) to determine if personality traits might predict NDI over NF. While neuroticism is the personality trait most commonly associated with nightmares,...
According to the continuity hypothesis, dreams reflect waking life experiences. Metacognition, the awareness of one’s thought processes, is minimal during typical dreaming but is assumed to be greater during lucid dreams, when the dreamer is aware they are dreaming and can sometimes control dream content. Therefore, one hypothesis is that lucid dreams may be more continuous with waking life...