A brief behavioral telemedicine therapy reduced nightmares, sleepiness, and insomnia symptoms in a 23-year-old woman with nightmare disorder. The intervention was delivered remotely, and improvements were observed immediately after treatment and maintained at a one-month follow-up. Measures included the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Paris Arousal Disorders Severity Scale, and a sleep diary. The case report suggests that behavioral treatment can be clinically effective for nightmare disorder, supporting its use beyond insomnia and other parasomnias.
Nightmare proneness—a disposition to have frequent nightmares—predicts how often people experience nightmares beyond what can be explained by neuroticism or general distress. In a cross-sectional study of 230 university students, nightmare proneness incrementally predicted nightmare frequency after accounting for neuroticism and distress. Additional analyses showed that neuroticism and distress indirectly predicted nightmare frequency through nightmare proneness, but nightmare proneness did not affect nightmares through those traits. The findings suggest nightmare proneness is a distinct psychological variable, not merely a reflection of neuroticism or distress.
Long-term Vipassana meditators show increased N3 (slow-wave) and REM sleep stages compared to non-meditators. Evening cortisol levels were similar between groups, but early morning cortisol, diurnal dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and melatonin were significantly higher in meditators. Diurnal DHEA correlated significantly with N3 sleep stage in meditators. These findings suggest that long-term Vipassana meditation practice modulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and thereby influences sleep, providing evidence to explore mechanisms involved with mindfulness meditation intervention in insomnia.
During lucid dreams, facial muscle electrical activity corresponds to specific sounds, making it possible to decode dream speech. Four lucid dream practitioners said the phrase "I love you" before sleep and again while conscious during a dream. Electromyography recorded from facial and neck areas showed that the "I" sound triggered distinctive activity in the submentalis area most of the time, while "you" did the same in the orbicularis oris. The results indicate the possibility of detecting only highly distinctive phrases from dreams and suggest the potential for creating an artificial EMG language that could be decoded in real time during lucid dreams.
A narcoleptic patient experienced sexual hypnagogic hallucinations accompanied by out-of-body experiences. While the link between narcolepsy and unusual sexual behaviors is known, few reports detail the distressing nature of such vivid hallucinations. This case highlights an embarrassing and complex symptom that can occur in narcolepsy, involving both sexual content and a sense of detachment from one's own body.