Objectives: This study conducted a systematic evaluation of polysomnographic differences between individuals with nightmares and healthy controls. Methods: Electronic searches of All EBM databases, EMBASE, Web of Science, and MEDLINE identified 14 eligible case-control studies; seven studies involving 112 individuals with nightmares and 112 controls were included in meta-analysis. Results: The...
Disorders of arousal from non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep are characterized by complex behaviors arising from incomplete awakenings. These behaviors can occasionally involve sophisticated motor actions and interactions with the environment. We report an apparently previously unreported case of a patient who repeatedly took photographs with a smartphone during somnambulistic episodes. A...
Background: Nightmares, nonrestorative sleep, and headaches co-occur, are common, underdiagnosed, and contribute to substantial disability. Pregabalin modulates excitatory neurotransmission, increases slow-wave sleep, and suppresses REM sleep, suggesting a potential therapeutic role in nightmares and sleep disturbance. Pregabalin’s effect on nightmares has not been systematically studied....
Purpose: Chronic Insomnia Disorder (CID) is prevalent, yet access to effective treatments is limited. Integrating mindfulness with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) in an accessible online format may fill this gap. This study evaluated the efficacy of a therapist-guided, internet-delivered Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Insomnia (iMBCT-I), which has been scarcely...
Insights into the mysteries of dreaming and waking conscious experience can be gained by considering fundamental concepts in memory research. To support this assertion, we first provide an overview of the conscious/nonconscious distinction in memory research and then summarize the memory theory of consciousness (MToC). According to the MToC, the brain system responsible for explicit memory is...
Since the 1930s, researchers have awakened people from different stages of sleep to record what they have experienced. While some aspects, including asking whether participants had dreams or thoughts before awakening, largely remain the same, others, such as the method of awakening, vary greatly. In addition, it is often assumed that the influence of participant characteristics, such as...
This study investigated dream characteristics in women during the first trimester of pregnancy compared to a group of non-pregnant women, aiming to identify variables associated with the observed differences. A sample of 100 pregnant women in their first trimester was compared to a control group of 100 age-matched non-pregnant women. Participants completed online questionnaires to assess dream...
Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is a well-tolerated sedative drug that induces a sleep-like state. DEX sedation offers a model to study transitions between different states of consciousness (indicated by, eg, behavior, the electroencephalogram (EEG), or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) evoked EEG responses). However, the effects of repeated DEX exposure on recovery are poorly understood and will...
Background: Speech graph analysis (SGA) of dreams has recently shown promise as an objective and language-invariant diagnostic tool that can aid neuropsychiatric diagnosis. Whilst the notion that dreaming mentations reflect distinct physiologic processes is not new, such studies in patients with sleep disorders remain exceptionally scarce. Here, using SGA and other dream content analyses, we...
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...
Purpose: Nightmare is common and is also independently implicated in suicide risk among the adolescent population. Adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) are at an increased risk of suicide. Therefore, comorbid nightmares may amplify suicide risk among this clinical population. This study aimed to explore the effects of nightmares on suicide risk among adolescents with MDD. Patients...
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...
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...
Several results suggest that the frequency of dream recall is positively correlated with personality traits such as creativity and openness to experience. In addition, neuroimaging results have evidenced different neurophysiological profiles in high dream recallers (HR) and low dream recallers (LR) during both sleep and wakefulness, specifically within regions of the default mode network (DMN)....
Objective/background: Night terrors, sleepwalking and confusional arousals are behavioral manifestations of incomplete awakenings from sleep. According to international diagnostic criteria, these behaviors occur in the absence of any mental experience, or in the presence of very limited cognition or dream imagery (eg, a single visual scene). The aim of this study was to systematically and...
INTRODUCTION: Recurrent nightmares, frequently associated with traumatic experiences, may impair quality of life and daily functioning. However, there have been few studies of posttraumatic nightmares occurring among children and youth, in particular for trauma-exposed populations in conflict zones. METHODS: Using two quantitative data sets, this study investigates the prevalence and...
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...
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...
In the current study, we aimed to investigate the EEG correlates of dream recall (DR) monitoring both the homeostatic and state-trait like factors. We assessed the influence of the time of night on the EEG correlates of DR from REM sleep. Specifically, we tested the continuity-hypothesis (on the theta EEG band) and the activation-hypothesis (on the delta and beta bands). Twenty-seven subjects...
Background and purpose: Nightmare distress (ND) is associated with a broad spectrum of psychopathological conditions such as anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. Some studies have indicated that dream beliefs play an important role in the occurrence and treatment of nightmare distress. However, existing instruments used to assess dream beliefs either fail to satisfy the requirements of the...
Nightmares are considered the hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although the characteristics of these distressing dreams may vary with the type of traumatic event, the pathophysiology exposes central dysfunction of brain structures at the level of the hippocampus, amygdala, and locus coeruleus, modulated by neurochemical imbalance in nor-adrenergic, dopaminergic, and serotonin...
Brain and sleep maturation covary across different stages of life. At the same time, dream generation and dream recall are intrinsically dependent on the development of neural systems. The aim of this paper is to review the existing studies about dreaming in infancy, adulthood, and the elderly stage of life, assessing whether dream mentation may reflect changes of the underlying cerebral...
Sleep paralysis is the unusual experience of waking up in the night without the ability to move. Currently little is known about the experience, despite the fact that the vast majority of episodes are associated with extreme fear and in a minority of cases can lead to clinically significant levels of distress. The aim of this work was to review the existing literature pertaining to the...