Sixty seconds on . . . bad dreams
Elisabeth Mahase
British medical journal October 31, 2022 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.o2610 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 36 |
| Population | People with recurring bad dreams |
| Intervention | Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) |
| Duration | Two weeks of daily home practice with sound exposure during rapid eye movement sleep, with follow-up at three months |
| Key findings | Adding a sound cue to imagery rehearsal therapy was associated with fewer nightmares and more positive dream emotions. Average weekly nightmares fell from 2.58 to 0.19 in the sound group versus 2.94 to 1.02 in controls after two weeks, and remained lower at three months (0.33 vs 1.48 per week). The authors suggest the approach could be developed as a sleep therapy for other psychiatric disorders. |
Abstract
Elisabeth Mahase Is this a Halloween thing? No, although it does involve nightmares. Youmean like getting a new primeminister every fewweeks? If only thatwere in themind.Morepositivenewsawaits thosewith real nightmares. Researchers in Switzerland may have found a way to boost the effectiveness of a treatment for nightmares called imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), where patients are asked to change the negative storyline of their bad dream to a more positive one. The technique doesn’t work for about 30% of patients, said the researchers in Current Biology,1 so they tried adding some piano tunes. Lie onmy couch and tell me everything In the study all 36 people with recurring bad dreams were asked to perform an initial IRT session in which they generated a positive outcome of their nightmare. Half of them were also exposed to a sound at the same time (the targeted memory reactivation (TMR) group), while the other half were not (control group). Did it strike a chord? The TMR group received a one second sound, such as a neutral piano chord, every 10 seconds through headphones while they were imagining their new positive dream scenario for five minutes. They were then asked to listen to the sound every day at home while they were practising their positive scenario. A real snoozefest During the next two weeks, all the participants performed IRT every evening at home and were exposed to the soundduring rapid eyemovement sleep. Thiswasdone throughawireless headbandwhich automatically detected sleep stages. Sweet dreams? It seems so. The study found the TMR group had less frequent nightmares and more positive dream emotions after two weeks of listening to the sound, with the average nightmares each week falling from 2.58 to 0.19, compared with 2.94 to 1.02 for the control group. They also had a sustained decrease in nightmares after three months, with the average remaining low at 0.33 a week, compared with 1.48 for the control group. Night, night The researchers suggested the technique could be used as a new sleep therapy for other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, and insomnia disorder. “These therapies can easily reach a big part of clinical populations and lead to new innovative approaches for promoting emotional wellbeing,” they said.