Behavioral Sleep Medicine
January 1, 2025
Michelle Carr, Westley Youngren, Martin Seehuus et al.
6 citations
In a representative sample of 1,332 people, lucid dreaming was linked to poor sleep quality, stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. However, when nightmares were accounted for, nightmares alone explained the associations with poor sleep, anxiety, and stress. Both nightmares and the combination of nightmares with lucid dreaming were associated with increased depressive symptoms.
Contemporary Clinical Trials
November 1, 2025
Lisham Ashrafioun, Anna Stephens, Hugh F Crean et al.
A randomized clinical trial is testing Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Pain and Suicide (MBCT-P/S) in 76 veterans who reported suicidal ideation and chronic pain. The therapy combines elements from two established programs, MBCT-Pain and MBCT-Suicide. Recruitment was completed faster than expected, supporting feasibility. Baseline data showed a diverse sample with clinically severe profiles differing by condition on key suicide risk variables. The trial will assess feasibility, treatment acceptability, and outcomes at 1, 3, and 6 months, including pain, suicide risk, retention, and therapist fidelity. Results will inform a future fully-powered efficacy trial.
Sleep
April 12, 2023
Claudia Picard-Deland, Karen R Konkoly, Rachel Raider et al.
Dreams incorporate memories from waking life, but this incorporation varies across the night. Twenty healthy adults were awakened repeatedly during early, middle, and late sleep stages (N1, N2, N3, REM) to collect dream reports. Recent memories appeared more often in N1 and REM dreams than in other stages. Distant memories from over a week ago, semantic memories, and anticipated future events remained stable across sleep stages. However, across the night, the balance shifted: late-night dreams in all stages contained fewer recent and more remote memories than earlier dreams. Dreams also repeated similar themes across the night. These results suggest that dream content may reflect sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes.
Military behavioral health
January 1, 2016
Todd M Bishop, Peter C Britton, Kerry L Knox et al.
Disrupted sleep is common among combat veterans and can worsen responses to mental health treatments. In a case-series trial, 14 combat veterans diagnosed with insomnia and experiencing posttraumatic stress or depression received cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) combined with imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) for nightmares. After treatment, veterans showed clinically significant improvements in sleep and statistically significant reductions in insomnia, nightmare, depression, and posttraumatic stress severity. Combined CBT-I and IRT appears to be a promising treatment for combat-related trauma and psychiatric morbidity.
Medical Care
December 1, 2014
Dessa Bergen-Cico, Kyle Possemato, Wilfred R Pigeon
A brief mindfulness program for veterans with PTSD appears to improve hypothalamic-pituitary axis function, as reflected in changes in diurnal cortisol levels. Veterans who completed four weekly mindfulness sessions showed a significant reduction in their cortisol awakening response and changes in overall cortisol output compared with those receiving usual care. The findings suggest that a four-week, non-exposure-based mindfulness intervention can have a beneficial physiological impact on veterans with PTSD who may be reluctant to engage in trauma-focused treatments.