Dreaming and insomnia: Dream recall and dream content of patients with insomnia
Michael Schredl, Gerard Schäfer, Bettina Weber, Isabella Heuser
Journal of Sleep Research September 1, 1998 DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2869.1998.00113.x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Patients with insomnia and healthy controls |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Patients with insomnia have elevated dream recall frequency due to more nocturnal awakenings, and their dreams contain more negative emotions and themes related to depression and health. |
Abstract
The present study investigated dream recall frequency and dream content of patients with insomnia in comparison to healthy controls. Patients’ dream recall frequency was elevated, due mainly to their heightened frequency of nocturnal awakenings. Dream content seems to reflect waking life stressors found in these patients, i.e. dream emotions were more negative and dreams were characterized by themes of depression, ‘negatives’ in self‐description and health themes. Patients taking antidepressants showed lower dream recall frequency than patients without any medication; benzodiazepine intake, however, did not affect dream recall frequency. Both drug groups reported more positively toned dreams than drug‐free patients. It is suggested that future studies should use more dreams per subject in order to reduce error variance of the dream content measures and more detailed measures of waking life stress.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Student volunteers trained to become lucid and signal lucidity with horizontal eye... | 2009 | Observational study | n = 6 |
| Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Young adults with a mean age of 20 years | 2002 | Prospective observational study | n = 116 |
| Long-term effects of extreme situational stress on sleep and dreaming Survivors of traumatic events who complained of sleep disturbances, compared with... | 1987 | Case-control study | n = 11 |
| The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Adults who reported dreams | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 147 |
| The prevalence of nightmares and their independence from anxiety. Undergraduates | 1990 | Observational study using daily dream logs | n = 220 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 52
- Prevalence and Correlates of Frequent Nightmares: A Community-Based 2-Phase Study Sleep June 1, 2010
- Factors of home dream recall: a structural equation model Journal of Sleep Research May 12, 2003
- Insomnia—perchance a dream? Results from a NREM/REM sleep awakening study in good sleepers and patients with insomnia Sleep February 8, 2018
- Dreaming and the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey in a U.S. sample. Dreaming September 1, 2020
- Increased Lucid Dreaming Frequency in Narcolepsy Sleep April 30, 2015
and 47 more in the library