Nightmare Frequency, Nightmare Distress, and Anxiety
Tammy T. Nguyen, Samara Madrid, Hazel Marquez, Robert A. Hicks
Perceptual and Motor Skills August 1, 2002 DOI: 10.2466/pms.2002.95.1.219 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 300 |
| Population | University students |
| Topics | Anxiety Dreaming |
| Key findings | Nightmare frequency and nightmare distress are significantly related to two dimensions of anxiety, contradicting Wood and Bootzin's 1990 conclusion that neither correlated with anxiety. |
Abstract
Using the self-reports of 300 university students, we replicated and extended the results of a 1971 study of Hersen by demonstrating a significant relationship between both nightmare frequency and nightmare distress with two dimensions of anxiety. Our results are not consistent with the 1990 findings of Wood and Bootzin who concluded that both nightmare frequency and nightmare distress were not correlated with anxiety.
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 |
| The prevalence of nightmares and their independence from anxiety. Undergraduates | 1990 | Observational study using daily dream logs | n = 220 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 12
- Measuring nightmare and bad dream frequency: impact of retrospective and prospective instruments Journal of Sleep Research May 13, 2008
- The Relationship between Nightmare Experience and Athletes’ Personality Traits and Anxiety International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health October 8, 2022
- Dreams and Nightmares in Early Pregnancy: A Comparative Study with a Control Group. Nature and Science of Sleep 2025
- An analysis of laypeople’s beliefs regarding the origins of their worst nightmare Papyrus : Institutional Repository (Université de Montréal) 2015
- 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
and 7 more in the library