Sleep Medicine
September 16, 2026
Abanoub J Armanious, Alexandra R Dunn, Caitlin E Martin et al.
Lemborexant is a dual orexin receptor antagonist (DORA) approved for the clinical management of insomnia. Clinical trials indicate that lemborexant improves sleep onset latency and sleep maintenance, with mild somnolence as the most common side effect. However, there is limited real-world evidence characterizing patient experiences with lemborexant, including perceived benefits, side effects,...
Sleep Medicine
September 1, 2026
Harshita Jain, Nitu Barod, Anupama Gupta et al.
Background Sleep paralysis (SP) is a rapid eye movement parasomnia often accompanied by intense psychological distress and hallucinations. The epidemiological landscape within the South Asian nations remains highly variable and poorly synthesized, compounded by deep-seated cultural stigmas. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to establish the pooled prevalence of SP within the South...
Sleep Medicine
July 2, 2026
Emilie Gagneron, Katayoun Rezaei, Romain Perot et al.
Suicide is a major public health concern, and identifying early indicators of suicidal crisis remains a key clinical challenge. Nightmares have been suggested as potential early markers of suicide risk. This study aimed to investigate dream alterations preceding a suicidal crisis in patients presenting to a psychiatric emergency department. This prospective study was conducted in a psychiatric...
Sleep Medicine
April 1, 2026
Su Min Kim, Tae-Gon Noh, J. Byun et al.
STUDY OBJECTIVES Isolated rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) involves dream enactment behaviors (DEBs) during REM sleep, accompanied by REM sleep without atonia (RWA). While most DEBs are bed-confined, a minority engage in ambulatory behaviors. This study investigated clinical, behavioral, and physiological characteristics of iRBD patients exhibiting ambulatory behaviors....
Sleep Medicine
April 1, 2026
Zulkayda Mamat, Rumia B Owaisi, Sarif Alrai et al.
This systematic scoping review (ScR) and mixed-methods systematic review (MMSR) investigates dreams of the deceased (DoD), i.e., experiences where individuals dream of deceased loved ones. We examined prevalence, characteristics of dreamers and the deceased, functions of these dreams, and cultural interpretations. A comprehensive search across five academic databases resulted in 4030 reports...
Sleep Medicine
November 1, 2025
Michael J. Howell
Abstract Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a fascinating state characterized by vivid dream mentation, quick saccadic eye movements, skeletal muscle paralysis, and autonomic arousal. Abnormal behaviors and experiential phenomena emanating from REM sleep, the REM parasomnias, can be mesmerizing and terrifying. These REM-related experiences include nightmares, isolated sleep paralysis, and the...
Sleep Medicine
October 21, 2025
REM sleep behavior disorder, often an early marker of α-synucleinopathies, is characterized by the loss of REM-related muscle atonia and the occurrence of dream enactment behaviors. Dream reports in REM sleep behavior disorder are frequently described as more vivid, violent, and negative than typical dreams. However, evidence for this remains inconsistent, likely due to methodological...
Sleep Medicine
June 24, 2025
Fan Feng, Hui Guo, Grace A Ding et al.
2 citations
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hallucinations, and is often associated with other psychological and physiological disturbances. These symptoms lead to decreased social functioning and lower quality of life for individuals with narcolepsy. While current pharmacological treatment for narcolepsy can be effective...
Sleep Medicine
June 1, 2025
George Kapotsis, Paschalis Steiropoulos, Nikoletta Rovina et al.
The ancient Greeks gave a special importance to sleep, both because of the interpretation of dreams and because of its healing properties. Therapeutic incubation [enkoimesis] was a ritual practice, resorted at the healing sanctuaries of antiquity in Greece, such as those of Asclepius [Asclepieia] and was the culmination of a process of sleeping in a sacred space in order to receive an...
Sleep Medicine
January 2, 2025
F Provini, Birgit Högl, Alex Iranzo et al.
According to the ICSD-3TR, nightmare disorder is characterized by extended, extremely dysphoric, and well-remembered dreams that usually involve threats to survival, security, or physical integrity. The dream experience causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Nightmare disorder occurs in 2–6% of adults. Nightmares...
Sleep Medicine
December 1, 2024
Ahmed Ali Khan, Ammara Abid, Maheen Nawaz et al.
Sleep paralysis (SP) is a rapid eye movement (REM) parasomnia that occurs during the transition between wakefulness and sleep. During this brief state, a person is conscious but unable to move or speak, often experiencing hallucinations. It is 'isolated' when it occurs without other symptoms of narcolepsy or sleep disorders. Despite its prevalence, much remains unknown about its clinical...
Sleep Medicine
October 5, 2024
Study objectives: To describe nightmare phenomenology among community dwelling elderly and to test the hypothesis that reduction in cognitive control is associated with nightmare-related phenomenology including nightmare frequency and severity, greater emotional reactivity, imagery immersion, and dream enactment behaviors (DEBs). Methods: Study 1: Survey with multiple regression and ANOVAs on N...
Sleep Medicine
October 1, 2024
Costanza Colombo, Nicola Cellini
Sleep paralysis (SP) is a REM-related parasomnia, characterized by the inability to perform voluntary movements. It is a relatively widespread phenomenon in the general population and, although usually not dangerous, it is experienced with intense fear. The current study aims to evaluate the lifetime prevalence and characteristics of SP in the Italian student population. The study was conducted...
Sleep Medicine
July 1, 2024
Andreas S Lappas, Eleni Glarou, Zoi A Polyzopoulou et al.
13 citations
Sleep disturbances are an important symptom dimension of post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD). There is no meta-analytic evidence examining the effects of all types of pharmacotherapy on sleep outcomes among patients with PTSD. Medline/Embase/PsychInfo/CENTRAL/clinicaltrials.gov/ICTRP, reference lists of published reviews and all included studies were searched for Randomised Controlled Trials...
Sleep Medicine
August 1, 2023
David A Kalmbach, Philip Cheng, Anthony N Reffi et al.
15 citations
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is effective for prenatal insomnia, but unresolved cognitive arousal limits patient outcomes. Therapies aimed at reducing cognitive arousal may benefit pregnant women with insomnia. This proof-of-concept trial evaluated Perinatal Understanding of Mindful Awareness for Sleep (PUMAS, which combines mindfulness with behavioral sleep strategies) on insomnia, depression,...
Sleep Medicine
April 1, 2023
Betul Rauf, Brian A Sharpless, Dan Denis et al.
Isolated sleep paralysis is a benign but frightening condition characterised by a temporary inability to move at sleep onset or upon awakening. Despite the prevalence of this condition, little is known concerning its clinical features, associated demographic characteristics, and prevention as well as disruption strategies. An online cross-sectional study was conducted. The sample comprised 3523...
Sleep Medicine
March 1, 2023
Z. Wang, Kai Zhang, Long He et al.
BACKGROUND Nightmares are common in patients with psychiatric disorders. Patients with psychiatric disorders often experience depressive symptoms. Nightmares have been associated with depressive symptoms among adolescents. Previous studies have explored the mediating role of nightmare distress in the relationship between frequent nightmares and depressive symptoms in the general adolescent...
Sleep Medicine
October 1, 2022
Maurice Ohayon, Amir Pakpour
Sleep paralysis is a common phenomenon which causes and consequences are seldomly studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and prevalence of sleep paralysis (SP) in the American adult population and its evolution on a 3-year period. This longitudinal study was conducted between 2002 and 2015 and included a representative sample of the US general population. A total of...
Sleep Medicine
July 20, 2022
Tim CampBell, Ariel Hurwitz, Robyn Bartel et al.
Studies conducted during the COVID-19 Pandemic have reported increased rates of mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [1]. A common symptom of mental illness is change in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, the phase of sleep associated with dreaming and nightmares. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of...
Sleep Medicine
April 1, 2022
Simone Cavallotti, Hans-Christian Stein, Mariantonietta Savarese et al.
Although aggressive dream content is considered a distinctive feature of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) and patients often report violent dreams during medical interviews, nonviolent behaviors (eating, drinking, urinating) and pleasant actions (e.g laughing, singing, dancing) or simply elemental, jerky limb movements are frequently observed during video-polysomnography. As a first-line...
Sleep Medicine
January 10, 2022
M Goncalves, A Henriques, A R Costa et al.
Objective/background: To describe and characterize insomnia symptoms and nightmare profiles in Portugal during the first six weeks of a national lockdown due to COVID-19. Patients/methods: An open cohort study was conducted to collect information of the general population during the first wave of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal. We analyzed data from 5011 participants (≥16 years) who...
Sleep Medicine
December 1, 2021
Michael Raduga
5 citations
Lucid dreams (LDs) occur when people become aware that they are dreaming. This phenomenon has a wide range of possible applications from the perspectives of psychology, training physical movements, and controlling computers while asleep, among others. However, research on LDs might lack efficiency because the standard LD verification protocol uses polysomnography (PSG), which requires an...
Sleep Medicine
September 1, 2021
Carolina Aguirre, Marcelo Miranda, Ambra Stefani
Several classical writers had an impressive power of observation and often depicted medical conditions in their works long before medical literature did. Sleep paralysis is a common and frightening experience, in particular when occurring for the first time. Therefore, it is not surprising that it has been frequently described in the classical literature, eg by Dostoevsky, Kafka, Dickens, and...
Sleep Medicine
April 29, 2021
Courtney B. Worley, Courtney J Bolstad, Michael R Nadorff
Study objectives: Disturbing dreams are a common complaint among trauma survivors, but little epidemiological research exists to document the frequency in the general population. In addition, information about their occurrence in diverse adults is lacking. Methods: Using the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys we had the unique opportunity to examine disturbing dreams in a diverse...
Sleep Medicine
November 1, 2020
Gwen Van der Wijk, Borbála Blaskovich, Yeganeh Farahzadi et al.
Frequent nightmares show signs of hyperarousal in NREM sleep. Nevertheless, idiopathic nightmare disorder is considered a REM parasomnia, but the pathophysiology of REM sleep in relation to frequent nightmares is controversial. Cortical oscillatory activity in REM sleep is largely modulated by phasic and tonic REM periods and seems to be linked to different functions and dysfunctions of REM...