The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares.
Sam Fisher-Hicks, Victoria Lovett, Rodger Ll Wood, Mark Blagrove
Neuropsychologia June 19, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109209 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional questionnaire and neuropsychological study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 52 |
| Population | Patients at a head trauma clinic (36 male, 16 female; mean age 39.69 years, SD 13.72) |
| Measures | questionnaire assessing frequency of dreams, nightmares and night terrors; tests for depression and anxiety; neuropsychological examination and test battery; Glasgow Coma Scale; post-traumatic amnesia |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Humans Brain injuries Glasgow coma scale Dreams Neuropsychological tests Middle aged Female Young adult Surveys and questionnaires Brain injury Night terrors Nightmares Dream cessation |
| Key findings | 34.6% of patients with brain injury reported not dreaming, comparable to Solms' 1997 rate of 34.9% and much higher than the 6.1-7.1% general-population rate. Dream cessation was associated with greater brain injury severity as measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale and post-traumatic amnesia, but not with neuropsychological scores. The authors argue the data cannot distinguish whether injury halts dream production or prevents encoding and recall of dreams on waking. |
Abstract
Mesial frontal and temporoparietal brain areas differ in activity between high and low dream recallers, and lesion studies have found cessation of dreaming in patients with damage to these areas. This study extends these findings by assessing the relationship of dream cessation, and dream and nightmare frequencies, to severity of injury in patients at a head trauma clinic. 52 participants (M = 36, F = 16; mean age = 39.69, SD = 13.72) completed a questionnaire assessing frequency of dreams, nightmares and night terrors, tests for depression and anxiety, and a neuropsychological examination and test battery. 34.6 % of patients reported that they do not dream, which is comparable to Solms' (1997) finding of 34.9 % in his brain injury sample. This contrasts with the rate of not reporting dreams in the general population of 6.1-7.1 %. Dream cessation participants had significantly greater severity of brain injury as measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale and post traumatic amnesia, but cessation was not related to neuropsychological scores. Compared to the general population there was a higher prevalence of weekly nightmares (13.5 %) and also of reporting never having nightmares (48.1 %), the former predicted by anxiety, the latter by brain injury severity. The data cannot distinguish between whether brain injury is halting the production of dreams or causes failure to encode and recall dreams on waking. Future studies using within-sleep behavioral or imaging methods may distinguish between these possibilities. Future studies should also determine if recovery of dream experience is predictive of more global recovery from brain injury.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insomnia Symptoms, Nightmares, and Suicidal Ideation in a College Student Sample Undergraduate students at a large, public university in the southeastern United States | 2011 | Observational cross-sectional survey | n = 583 |
| Prevalence and Correlates of Frequent Nightmares: A Community-Based 2-Phase Study Middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese adults from the community, mean age 40.9 years (SD 5.5,... | 2010 | Cross-sectional survey with subsequent clinical evaluation (two-phase design) | n = 8,558 |
| Factors of home dream recall: a structural equation model Adults (general population sample) | 2003 | Cross-sectional survey with structural equation modeling | n = 444 |
| The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams | 2014 | Online survey | n = 684 |
| Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Representative sample of German adults | 2011 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 919 |
Citations in the library
Cites 31
- Dreaming as mind wandering: evidence from functional neuroimaging and first-person content reports. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013
- The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Journal of Sleep Research May 26, 2004
- Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. Current Biology April 12, 2021
- Increased Awakenings From Non-rapid Eye Movement Sleep Explain Differences in Dream Recall Frequency in Healthy Individuals Frontiers in Human Neuroscience October 15, 2019
- Enhancing and advancing the understanding and study of dreaming and memory consolidation: Reflections, challenges, theoretical clarity, and methodological considerations Consciousness and Cognition June 27, 2024
and 26 more in the library