Unpleasant Dream Content and Risk of Sleep Apnea
Habibolah Khazaie, M. Masoudi, Shahrzad Khoshbakht, M. R. Ghadami
August 7, 2014 DOI: 10.4172/psychiatry.1000136 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Prospective observational study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 448 |
| Population | Healthy adult individuals |
| Duration | Past month (dream experiences assessed over the past month) |
| Measures | Berlin questionnaire (BQ), self-report questionnaire assessing unpleasant dream experiences |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Sleep apnea risk, as measured by the Berlin questionnaire, was not associated with the frequency of unpleasant dream content or with general dream recall in healthy adults. Among 448 participants, 16% were high risk and 84% low risk, and no significant differences emerged on any dream-related measure. |
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was assess the association between risk of sleep apnea and reported unpleasant dream content in healthy individual.
Methods: In this prospective study, participants completed Berlin questionnaire (BQ) to assess their risk for sleep apnea and also, completed a self-report questionnaire that assessed unpleasant dream experiences over the past month including frequency of recalled dreams. Based on BQ finding, participants divided in two groups (low and high risk for sleep apnea) and unpleasant dream content were compared between two groups.
Results: four hundred forty eight participants completed questionnaires. 72 subjects (16%) were diagnosed as high risk for sleep apnea, and 376 (84%) were recognized as low risk. There were no significant differences on items related to the frequency of each unpleasant dream between two groups. Also, 32% of low risk subjects reported infrequent dream recall and 25% reported frequent dream recall. Whereas in high risk group, 30% subjects reported infrequent and 30% reported frequent dream recall. There were no significant differences on any of the general measures of dream recall.
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 |