Increased heartbeat-evoked potential during REM sleep in nightmare disorder.
Lampros Perogamvros, Hyeong-Dong Park, Laurence Bayer, Aurore A Perrault, Olaf Blanke, Sophie Schwartz
NeuroImage: Clinical 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.101701 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Patients with nightmare disorder and healthy participants |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | EEG Emotional arousal Heartbeat-evoked potential Nightmares Rem sleep |
| Key findings | Higher HEP amplitude in nightmare patients compared to healthy controls over frontal regions only during REM sleep. |
Abstract
Nightmares are characterized by the experience of strong negative emotions occurring mainly during REM sleep. Some people suffer from nightmare disorder, which is defined by the repeated occurrence of nightmares and by significant distress in wakefulness. Yet, whether frequent nightmares relate to a general increase in emotional reactivity or arousal during sleep remains unclear. To address this question, we recorded heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEPs) during wakefulness, NREM and REM sleep in patients with nightmare disorder and healthy participants. The HEP represents a cortical (EEG) response to the heartbeat and indexes brain-body interactions, such as interoceptive processing and intrinsic levels of arousal. HEP amplitude is typically increased during states of high emotional arousal and motivation, and is decreased in depression. Here we compared the amplitude of HEPs between nightmare patients and healthy controls separately during AWAKE, NREM, REM periods, and found higher HEP amplitude in nightmare patients compared to healthy controls over a cluster of frontal regions only during REM sleep. This effect was not paralleled by any group difference in cardiac control measures (e.g. heart rate variability, interbeat interval). These findings corroborate the notion that nightmares are essentially a REM pathology and suggest that increased emotional arousal during REM sleep, as measured by HEP, is a physiological condition responsible for frequent nightmares. This result also supports that HEP may be used as a biomarker of increased emotional and sensory processing during REM sleep in these patients.
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 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 13
- Nightmare content during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Influence of COVID‐related stress and sleep disruption in the United States Journal of Sleep Research August 18, 2021
- Bad dream, nightmares and psychopathology: a systematic review Frontiers in Psychiatry October 8, 2024
- Local Neuronal Synchronization in Frequent Nightmare Recallers and Healthy Controls: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Frontiers in Neuroscience March 18, 2021
- Nightmare experiences and perceived ethnic discrimination amongst female university students in the United Arab Emirates: a cross‐sectional study Journal of Sleep Research January 17, 2024
- Sensory processing reallocation from auditory to cardiac signals in REM sleep. Current Biology August 17, 2026
and 8 more in the library
Cites 16
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- Cortical reactivity and effective connectivity during REM sleep in humans Cognitive Neuroscience July 1, 2010
- Increased Reward-Related Behaviors during Sleep and Wakefulness in Sleepwalking and Idiopathic Nightmares PLoS One August 19, 2015
- Sleep spindle and psychopathology characteristics of frequent nightmare recallers. Sleep Medicine October 1, 2018
- Neural Sources and Underlying Mechanisms of Neural Responses to Heartbeats, and their Role in Bodily Self-consciousness: An Intracranial EEG Study. Cerebral Cortex July 1, 2018
and 11 more in the library