Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2018
Anastasia Mangiaruga, Serena Scarpelli, Chiara Bartolacci et al.
40 citations
Brain and sleep maturation change across life stages, and dream generation and recall depend on neural development. This review examines dreaming in infancy, adulthood, and old age, assessing whether dream mentation reflects underlying brain activity and cognitive processes. In children, weak evidence links cognitive skills to dream features, but infantile amnesia, confabulation, and limited language are confounding factors. In adults, evidence suggests shared neural mechanisms between waking cognition and dream features. Elderly people commonly report lower dream recall frequency, attributed to diminished interest or possibly age-related cognitive decline. The authors note a lack of longitudinal psychophysiological studies and recommend future research collecting dream reports upon awakening with neurobiological and cognitive measures.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2020
Anita D'Anselmo, Sergio Agnoli, Marco Filardi et al.
19 citations
People with type 1 narcolepsy who experience hypnagogic hallucinations (vivid dream-like sensations at sleep onset) show greater creative achievement and potential. In a study of 66 patients, spontaneous mind wandering was linked to creative success, but this link was strengthened by the presence of both sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. These hallucinations also shaped patients' creative identity, which in turn predicted higher creative performance on a divergent thinking test (generating original solutions) and real-world creative achievement. The findings suggest that hypnagogic hallucinations trigger mind-wandering processes and influence self-concept, together boosting creativity in narcolepsy.
Nature and Science of Sleep
August 1, 2022
Brigitte Holzinger, Franziska Nierwetberg, Frances Chung et al.
16 citations
High nightmare frequency (≥1–2 nights/week) rose from 13.24% to 22.35% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors associated with high nightmare frequency included self-reported post-traumatic stress symptoms (OR=2.11), other mental disorders, sleep problems, financial burden, confinement, having had COVID-19, and work situation. Post-traumatic stress symptoms partly mediated the relationship between pandemic-related stressors and nightmare frequency. The authors conclude that the pandemic caused traumatization in a substantial proportion of society and suggest that health care workers screen for nightmares as an indicator of post-traumatic stress symptoms and other disorders.
Nature and Science of Sleep
September 1, 2022
Tian‐He Song, Tingting Wang, Yun‐Yue Zhuang et al.
13 citations
Adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) experience more frequent nightmares and greater nightmare distress than healthy peers (22.0% vs 6.1% reporting nightmares at least once per week). Among those with suicide risk, over half (51.6%) had frequent nightmares, compared to about a third (30.7%) without suicide risk. Nightmare distress, along with female gender, junior grade, recurrent depressive episodes, and severe depressive symptoms, independently and significantly predicts suicide risk. The findings indicate that nightmare distress is an independent risk factor for suicide in adolescents with MDD, suggesting that addressing nightmares may be important in suicide prevention for this population.
Nature and Science of Sleep
March 1, 2021
Jon‐Håkon Schultz, June Thorvaldsen Forsberg, Gerlinde C. Harb et al.
13 citations
Recurrent nightmares are common among children and adolescents living in conflict zones. In a study of 300 students aged 10-12 in the Gaza Strip, 56% reported recurrent nightmares, averaging 4.20 nights per week over 2.48 years. Among a larger sample of 1,093 treatment-seeking students aged 6-17, recurrent traumatic nightmares occurred on average 4.57 nights per week for 2.82 years. Self-reported academic functioning was negatively associated with experiencing nightmares, but not with nightmare frequency or intensity. The findings suggest that students in conflict-affected areas are particularly vulnerable and may benefit from screening and treatment for recurrent posttraumatic nightmares.
Nature and Science of Sleep
March 1, 2024
Qi Rui See, Kausar Raheel, Iain Duncan et al.
8 citations
Patients with idiopathic REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (iRBD) and those with Non-Rapid Eye Movement Parasomnia (NREMP) differ not only in the content of their morning dream recalls but also in the structural organization of those recalls. iRBD patients were more likely to recall dreams and had more white dreams (feeling of having dreamt without memory). Speech graph analysis revealed that iRBD dream reports had stable, linear sequential structures, while NREMP dream reports were more recursive and less stable, with higher graph connectivity scores. These findings suggest distinct underlying mechanisms for dream recall in these two sleep disorders.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2025
Benjamin Stucky
6 citations
A review of 69 awakening studies from 2000 to 2024 found that how people are awakened and their personal traits strongly affect whether they recall dreams or thoughts upon waking. Recall rates were lower when an alarm was used compared to calling a participant's name, and recall decreased over multiple study days. People awakened at home reported more experiences than those in a lab. Participant characteristics beyond age and sex, such as openness to experience, also influenced recall. These factors can alter study outcomes, including the identification of neural correlates of consciousness, so greater attention to awakening methods and participant traits is needed.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2023
Serena Scarpelli, Valentina Alfonsi, Milena Camaioni et al.
3 citations
Dream recall, nightmares, lucid dreams, and emotional intensity all decreased between the first and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in a large Italian sample. People whose general psychological distress improved during that period reported fewer nightmares and less nightmare distress than those whose distress stayed the same or worsened. Poor sleep hygiene was a strong predictor of nightmare distress among the group that did not improve. The findings suggest that people adapted to the pandemic over time and that nightmares are closely tied to well-being, with both stable traits (age, sex) and sleep-related factors influencing nightmare features.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2025
Serena Scarpelli, Marta Spinoni, Maurizio Gorgoni et al.
1 citation
Pregnant women in their first trimester experience fewer nightmares than non-pregnant counterparts, with 100 participants in each group revealing significant differences. While only 23% of pregnant women reported frequent nightmares, this contrasts sharply with 43% in the control group. Additionally, those with depressive symptoms and greater dream engagement were more likely to have nightmares. The findings suggest that hormonal changes during gestation may reduce oneiric activity, supporting the continuity hypothesis that links depression with nightmare frequency.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2025
David R Schreier, Matteo Fecchio, Christian S Guay et al.
Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is a sedative that produces a sleep-like state and offers a way to study shifts in consciousness using behavior, EEG, and TMS-evoked EEG responses. Little is known about how repeated DEX exposure affects recovery. This pilot trial plans to sedate 12 healthy volunteers twice, one week apart, monitoring responsiveness with an auditory click task. It will compare time to return of responsiveness between visits, explore sex differences, and assess state transitions via EEG signatures, TMS-evoked complexity, and cognitive tests. The study also evaluates the feasibility of TMS-EEG during DEX sedation and reports on sleep quality and experiences.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2022
Serena Scarpelli, Michael R Nadorff, Bjørn Bjorvatn et al.
People reported more dream activity during the pandemic than before it. Those who had COVID-19 reported significantly more nightmares during the pandemic than matched controls who had not had COVID-19, while dream recall frequency did not differ between the groups. COVID-19 participants also had higher anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptom scores, and lower quality of life and well-being scores than controls. Nightmare frequency was predicted by dream recall frequency, PTSD, anxiety, insomnia, COVID-19 severity, sleep duration, and age. The findings suggest that the more severely people were affected by COVID-19, the greater the impact on dream activity and quality of life.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2022
Raphael Vallat, Başak Türker, Alain Nicolas et al.
People who frequently recall their dreams show greater functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) during resting wakefulness and score higher on creativity tests than those who rarely recall dreams. No significant difference in memory abilities appeared between the groups. However, creativity scores did not correlate significantly with DMN connectivity. These findings support the idea that dreaming and mind wandering are related spontaneous mental processes linked to the DMN, and suggest that increased DMN activity may promote creative thinking during both wakefulness and sleep, though causal evidence remains to be established.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2021
Eirin Fränkl, Serena Scarpelli, Michael R Nadorff et al.
Dream recall frequency increased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels across four continents. In a cross-sectional web survey of 19,355 individuals from 14 countries, high dream recall (three or more nights per week) was associated with female gender, nightmares, sleep talking, sleep maintenance problems, symptoms of REM sleep behavior disorder, and repeated disturbing thoughts indicative of PTSD. Older adults aged 55-64 reported less high dream recall than younger participants. While unadjusted analyses showed associations between depression, anxiety, and dream recall, adjusted analyses revealed negative associations: depression and anxiety were linked to lower odds of high dream recall. The findings suggest that the pandemic's emotional intensity is reflected in dreams.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2020
Serena Scarpelli, Chiara Bartolacci, Aurora D'Atri et al.
Dream recall is associated with higher brain activation during REM sleep, regardless of the time of night. Theta, delta, and beta EEG bands were analyzed in 10 subjects who underwent multiple awakenings during REM sleep across the night. Results showed no significant effect of time of night or interaction, but significant differences in beta band activity over the occipital area and in the delta/beta activation index over the parietal area. These findings support the activation-hypothesis, which links dream recall to desynchronized EEG activity, and suggest that such recall is related to state-like factors rather than homeostatic pressure.
Nature and Science of Sleep
January 1, 2018
Dan Denis
Sleep paralysis is the experience of waking up unable to move, often accompanied by extreme fear and, in some cases, significant distress. This review of existing literature found that worse subjective sleep quality is consistently associated with higher odds of sleep paralysis. Insomnia symptoms, but not a diagnosed insomnia disorder, also predict its occurrence. Sleep paralysis is linked to other unusual sleep experiences like nightmares, exploding head syndrome, and lucid dreaming. Objective laboratory recordings show sleep paralysis is a mixed state of consciousness, combining elements of rapid eye movement sleep with wakefulness. Future research should use longitudinal designs and broader assessments to better understand the condition.