Dreaming and insomnia: Dream recall and dream content of patients with insomnia

People with insomnia recall their dreams more often than healthy individuals, mainly because they wake up more frequently during the night. Their dream content tends to be more negative, with themes of depression, self-criticism, and health concerns, reflecting waking-life stressors. Antidepressant use is linked to lower dream recall, while benzodiazepines do not affect recall frequency. Both types of medication are associated with more positively toned dreams compared to unmedicated patients. The authors recommend future studies collect more dreams per person to improve measurement accuracy and include detailed assessments of waking stress.

Study at a glance

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.