Nightmares and bad dreams in patients with borderline personality disorder: Fantasy as a coping skill?
Péter Simor, Szilvia Csóka, Róbert Bódizs
The European Journal of Psychiatry March 1, 2010 DOI: 10.4321/s0213-61632010000100004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 35 |
| Key findings | The study aimed to replicate previous findings of high nightmare prevalence and dream anxiety in BPD using dream logs, and to examine associations with emotional instability and protective factors. Specific results are not detailed in the abstract. |
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Previous studies reported a high prevalence of nightmares and dream anxiety in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and the severity of dream disturbances correlated with daytime symptoms of psychopathology. However, the majority of these results are based on retrospective questionnaire-based study designs, and hence the effect of recall biases (characteristic for BPD), could not be controlled. Therefore our aim was to replicate these findings using dream logs. Moreover, we aimed to examine the level of dream disturbances in connection with measures of emotional instability, and to explore the protective factors against dream disturbances.
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 16
- Continuity between waking life and dreams of psychiatric patients A review and discussion of the implications for dream research University Library Heidelberg 2014
- Dream-reality confusion in borderline personality disorder: a theoretical analysis Frontiers in Psychology September 15, 2015
- Imagery rehearsal therapy for the treatment of nightmares in individuals with borderline personality disorder – A pilot study Journal of Psychiatric Research December 28, 2024
- Associations Between Both Adaptive and Maladaptive Personality Constructs and Emotional Load and Content of Adult Dreams Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine March 25, 2024
- Parasomnias I Oxford University Press eBooks May 22, 2025
and 11 more in the library
Cites 6
- What is a dream? Behaviour Research and Therapy 1987
- Dreaming and health promotion: A theoretical proposal and some epidemiological establishments European Journal of Mental Health June 1, 2008
- Nightmare disorder, dream anxiety, and subjective sleep quality in patients with borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences February 1, 2008
- Clinical importance of nightmare disorder in patients with dissociative disorders Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences December 1, 2003
- SSRI treatment suppresses dream recall frequency but increases subjective dream intensity in normal subjects. Journal of Sleep Research June 1, 2001
and 1 more in the library