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Dream Content in Patients With Sleep Apnea: A Prospective Sleep Laboratory Study.

Franziska Di Pauli, Ambra Stefani, Evi Holzknecht, Elisabeth Brandauer, Thomas Mitterling, Brigitte Holzinger, Birgit Högl

Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine January 15, 2018 DOI: 10.5664/jcsm.6876 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Observational cohort study Peer reviewed
Sample size 76
Population Adults undergoing polysomnography for suspected sleep apnea
Measures dream questionnaires
Topics Dreaming
Keywords Cpap Rem sleep Polysomnography Sleep apnea
Key findings No significant difference in respiratory-related dream topics was found between patients with sleep apnea and controls with primary snoring, and respiratory parameters measured during polysomnography did not influence dream content. The authors suggest the absence of detectable differences may indicate that respiratory events are not incorporated into dreams or that early-morning dream collection introduced bias.

Abstract

Few studies have addressed dreaming in patients with sleep apnea. We hypothesized that respiratory events and subsequent oxygen desaturation act as an important physiological trigger and may thus influence dream content in patients with a sleep-related breathing disorder. Seventy-six patients (28 women, mean age 54 years, range 20-82) who underwent polysomnography because of suspected sleep apnea participated in this study. Dream reports and dream questionnaires were collected immediately after first morning awakening, at 5:30 AM, at the sleep laboratory. Dream content analysis with respect to possible respiratory-related content was performed. Patients were stratified into primary snoring, mild, moderate, and severe sleep apnea groups. In 63 patients sleep apnea was diagnosed (mild n = 31, 49.2%, moderate n = 13, 20.6%, severe n = 19, 30.2%), and 13 subjects in whom a sleep-related breathing disorder was not confirmed were included as a control group with primary snoring. There was no significant difference in respiratory-related dream topics between patients and controls. Also, no influence of respiratory parameters measured during polysomnography on dream content was detectable. We failed to detect a difference in dream content between patients with sleep apnea and controls. Further studies are required to determine whether these results indicate that the incorporation of respiratory events into dreams is absent in patients with sleep apnea or represents a bias due to the collection of dream content in the early morning hours.

Comparable studies

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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

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