Journal of Sleep Research
April 1, 2026
Severin Ableidinger, Luigi De Gennaro, Sérgio Mota-Rolim et al.
During lucid dreaming (LD), dreamers are aware that they are dreaming and may be able to influence the oneiric content. There has been recent debate about the relative importance of the ability to influence the dream and having agency over the pure awareness of dreaming. To underline this, we examined the associations of lucid dreams without agency (LD-Ag) and lucid dreams with agency (LD + Ag)...
medRxiv
February 17, 2026
Constantin Weberpals, A. Specht, Natasja Bonde Andersen et al.
Abstract Type 1 narcolepsy (NT1), a disorder caused by the loss of hypocretin/orexin transmission, is characterized by daytime sleepiness and symptoms where Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, a state normally occurring from middle to late in the night, can intermingle with wakefulness. This results in cataplexy and sleep paralysis, episodes of muscle paralysis when awake, or in the generation of...
Journal of Sleep Research
February 1, 2026
Courtney J Bolstad, Bjørn Bjorvatn, Ngan Yin Chan et al.
The present study aimed to describe the prevalence rates of frequent (i.e., at least weekly) dream recall and nightmares with consideration for differences in age, gender and sleep duration in 16 countries using equivalent assessment methods. The study sample included 15,854 participants (69.9% women) aged 18-99 years (M = 42.39, SD = 16.43) collected by the International COVID-19 Sleep Study...
Journal of Sleep Research
October 1, 2024
Courtney J Bolstad, Brigitte Holzinger, Serena Scarpelli et al.
The association between nightmare frequency (NMF) and suicidal ideation (SI) is well known, yet the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this relation is inconsistent. This study aimed to investigate changes in NMF, SI, and their association during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected in 16 countries using a harmonised questionnaire. The sample included 9328 individuals (4848 women; age...
Nature and Science of Sleep
2023
Serena Scarpelli, Valentina Alfonsi, Milena Camaioni et al.
3 citations
COVID-19 pandemic waves have strongly influenced individuals' behaviors and mental health. Here, we analyzed longitudinal data collected in the Spring 2020 and 2021 from a large Italian sample with the aim of assessing changes in dream features between the first and third wave. Specifically, we evaluated the modifications of pandemic dream activity as a function of the general distress...
Nature and Science of Sleep
August 1, 2022
Brigitte Holzinger, Franziska Nierwetberg, Frances Chung et al.
16 citations
Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic affects mental health and sleep, resulting in frequent nightmares. Therefore, identifying factors associated with nightmare frequency is important, as it can indicate mental health issues. The study aimed to investigate increases in nightmare frequency comparing the pre-pandemic and pandemic period, and identify its risk factors. Further, the mediating role of...
Nature and Science of Sleep
2022
Serena Scarpelli, Michael R Nadorff, Bjørn Bjorvatn et al.
A growing number of studies have demonstrated that the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely affected sleep and dream activity in healthy people. To date, no investigation has examined dream activity specifically in COVID-19 patients. As part of the International COVID-19 Sleep Study (ICOSS), we compared 544 COVID-19 participants with 544 matched-controls. A within-subjects...
Brain Sciences
October 20, 2021
Serena Scarpelli, Valentina Alfonsi, Maurizio Gorgoni et al.
23 citations
Recent literature shows that the Coronovirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has provoked significant changes in dreaming. The current study intends to provide an update about dream variable changes during the second wave of COVID-19. A total of 611 participants completed a web survey from December 2020 to January 2021. Statistical comparisons showed that subjects had lower dream-recall frequency,...
Journal of Sleep Research
October 1, 2021
Serena Scarpelli, Valentina Alfonsi, Anastasia Mangiaruga et al.
COVID-19 has critically impacted the world. Recent works have found substantial changes in sleep and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dreams could give us crucial information about people's well-being, so here we have directly investigated the consequences of lockdown on the oneiric activity in a large Italian sample: 5,988 adults completed a web-survey during lockdown. We...
Frontiers in Psychology
2021
Serena Scarpelli, Valentina Alfonsi, Anita D'Anselmo et al.
18 citations
Some studies highlighted that patients with narcolepsy type-1 (NT1) experience high lucid dream frequency, and this phenomenon has been associated with a creative personality. Starting from the well-known "pandemic effect" on sleep and dreaming, we presented a picture of dream activity in pharmacologically treated NT1 patients during the Italian lockdown. Forty-three NT1 patients completed a...
Nature and Science of Sleep
2021
Eirin Fränkl, Serena Scarpelli, Michael R Nadorff et al.
Many have reported odd dreams during the pandemic. Given that dreams are associated with mental health, understanding these changes could provide crucial information about wellbeing during the pandemic. This study explored associations between COVID-19 and dream recall frequency (DRF), and related social, health, and mental health factors. We conducted a cross-sectional web survey of 19,355...
Sleep
August 12, 2020
Carlo Cipolli, Fabio Pizza, Claudia Bellucci et al.
To assess the frequency of dream experience (DE) developed during naps at Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) by patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) and establish, using story-grammar analysis, the structural organization of DEs developed during naps with sleep onset rapid eye movement (REM) period (SOREMP) sleep compared with their DEs during early- and late-night REM sleep. Thirty drug-free...
Nature and Science of Sleep
2020
Anita D'Anselmo, Sergio Agnoli, Marco Filardi et al.
19 citations
A higher creative potential has been reported in narcoleptic patients and linked to lucid dreaming. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of narcolepsy symptoms (presence and severity) in predicting creativity. Sixty-six consecutive type 1 narcolepsy patients (mean age 38.62 ± 17.05, 31 females) took part in this study. Creative achievement in different life domains and creative...
Frontiers in Neurology
2020
Baland Jalal, Ludovico Moruzzi, Andrea Zangrandi et al.
13 citations
Sleep paralysis (SP) is a condition where a person is paralyzed upon waking or falling asleep. SP afflicts ~20% of people, and is also one of the typical symptoms in narcolepsy. During SP the sleeper may experience hallucinations. Unsurprisingly, SP is associated with great fear globally. To date, there are no published clinical trials or outcome data for treating this condition. However, few...
Frontiers in Neuroscience
2020
Carlo Cipolli, Fabio Pizza, Claudia Bellucci et al.
The less rigid architecture of sleep in patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) compared with healthy subjects may provide new insights into some unresolved issues of dream experience (DE), under the assumption that their DE frequencies are comparable. The multiple transition from wakefulness to REM sleep (sleep onset REM period: SOREMP) during the five trials of the Multiple Sleep Latency Test...
Brain : a journal of neurology
July 1, 2019
Célia Lacaux, Charlotte Izabelle, Giulio Santantonio et al.
47 citations
Some studies suggest a link between creativity and rapid eye movement sleep. Narcolepsy is characterized by falling asleep directly into rapid eye movement sleep, states of dissociated wakefulness and rapid eye movement sleep (cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder and lucid dreaming) and a high dream recall frequency. Lucid dreaming...
Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology
March 1, 2019
Aurora D'Atri, Serena Scarpelli, Cinzia Schiappa et al.
Narcolepsy type 1 widely affects the architecture of sleep with frequent fast transition to REM sleep at both nighttime and daytime sleep onset. The occurrence of repeated sleep onset REM periods over the Multiple Sleep Latency Test offers a unique opportunity to identify EEG patterns predictive of successful dream recall after short periods composed of only REM or NREM sleep. It also permits...
Sleep Medicine Reviews
October 1, 2017
Carlo Cipolli, Michele Ferrara, Luigi De Gennaro et al.
Recent advances in electrophysiological [e.g., surface high-density electroencephalographic (hd-EEG) and intracranial recordings], video-polysomnography (video-PSG), transcranial stimulation and neuroimaging techniques allow more in-depth and more accurate investigation of the neural correlates of dreaming in healthy individuals and in patients with brain-damage, neurodegenerative diseases,...
Sleep Medicine Reviews
August 1, 2016
Elena Antelmi, Raffaele Ferri, Alex Iranzo et al.
The states of being are conventionally defined by the simultaneous occurrence of behavioral, neurophysiological and autonomic descriptors. State dissociation disorders are due to the intrusion of features typical of a different state into an ongoing state. Disorders related to these conditions are classified according to the ongoing main state and comprise: 1) Dissociation from prevailing...
Brain Research Bulletin
January 15, 2010
Michela Mazzetti, Claudia Bellucci, Katia Mattarozzi et al.
An abundant recall of dreams has been observed in clinical studies on patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy (NC), a neurological disorder characterized by an altered sleep architecture. Laboratory studies have shown that dream experiences developed during 1st-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep by NC patients are longer and more complex than those of healthy subjects. To establish whether these...
Brain Research Bulletin
October 22, 2008
Carlo Cipolli, Claudia Bellucci, Katia Mattarozzi et al.
Narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) is a neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and an altered architecture of sleep. Previous laboratory studies have shown that frightening, bizarre and visually vivid contents are more frequent in dream experiences developed during the first period of REM sleep by NC patients than healthy subjects. As the structural organization of...