Trauma exposure is a known risk for sleep disruption from both nightmares and insomnia. Informed by recent research proposing specific mechanisms linking trauma to sleep disruption and between nightmares and insomnia, (Werner et al. 2021), we tested a model in which the relationship between nightmares and insomnia was mediated by fear of sleep. Study participants were college-aged women (N=497;...
STUDY OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the effectiveness of a group intervention combining cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) for nightmares, delivered to current and former military and law-enforcement personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at an outpatient operational stress injury clinic. This study further investigated the...
Both heightened nightmare (NM) distress, intense negative emotional reactions to nightmares, and low dream self-efficacy (DSE; the perceived ability to manage or influence dream experiences), are understudied contributors to posttraumatic functioning. Individuals with lower DSE shows increased suicide risk in trauma survivors and may increase emotional disturbances during sleep, while NM...
Abstract Introduction Targeted Dream Incubation (TDI) is the process of giving an individual auditory cues (i.e., “think of a tree”) while they are falling asleep, with the goal of shaping dream content (into something such as a tree). Recent research has demonstrated TDI may be able to increase dream self-efficacy (DSE) and influence other mental health outcomes. Thus, our study explored how...
SleepMay 1, 2026Holland Doise, A. Gonzalez Quesada, Garrett Baber et al.
Abstract Introduction Nightmares are associated with more severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The advent of large language models (LLM) offers unique advantages to efficiently code affective dream content over human methods, which can be resource intensive and prone to error. This study tested whether dream affect (DA), measured via self-report, human-rated narrative coding, and LLM...
Brain and BehaviorMay 1, 2026Alessandro Bombaci, Alessandra Giordano, Ilaria Lavalle et al.
BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons, leading to muscle atrophy, weakness, and respiratory failure. Numerous studies evaluated the impact of diseases on dream content, and the dream content analysis may be considered an interesting tool in the study of the internalization of...
Abstract Background Approximately 5% of people suffer from nightmares at least every 2 weeks. One cognitive behavioral intervention for recurrent nightmares is imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), in which individuals recall, modify, and rehearse a less distressing version of their dream. Objective This randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of a web application called “DreamMend” as a...
When assessing sleep disturbances in PTSD, count disturbed awakenings as nightmares at baseline. This is a key symptom of PTSD-related sleep problems and a target for treatment. Investigate nicotine withdrawal in pack-a-day smokers who awaken after several hours. An important indicator is the patient’s ability to return to sleep after smoking a cigarette. For sleep terrors with thrashing and...
Annals of NeurosciencesApril 18, 2026T. S. Saranya, Sera Mary Soloman, Sandeep Kumar Gupta et al.
Background: Trauma has a profound impact on both psychological and physiological functioning, with sleep disturbances-particularly nightmares-emerging as one of the most commonly reported symptoms. These sleep disruptions often co-occur with cognitive difficulties, affecting memory and attention. Purpose: The present study aimed to explore the relationship between trauma history, nightmare...
BACKGROUND: Nightmare complaints are common among individuals with psychiatric disorders and are associated with significant emotional distress and functional impairment. Despite their clinical relevance, they remain frequently under-recognized and under-treated in psychiatric settings. OBJECTIVE: To offer a pragmatic, clinician-oriented framework for the evaluation and management of nightmare...
Nightmares are repeated and lengthy dreams, extremely dysphoric, with clear memory, typically involving life-threatening threats to safety or physical integrity. These nightmares lead to significant distress upon awakening and may substantially impact daytime functioning. Both the experience of these dreams and the sleep disruption produced by the ensuing awakening cause significant impairment...
A popular view holds that mental experiences uniquely differ between wakefulness and sleep, yet recent work suggests continuity across these stages. Here, we address this question by examining the wake-sleep transition, a window marked by rapid shifts in wake/sleep stages and mental experiences. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) activity in 92 participants during two daytime resting...
Sleep paralysis (SP) is understood as a form of temporary muscle paralysis that occurs during the transition between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and wakefulness. SP is normally associated with vivid, fear-provoking hallucinations such as being threatened or attacked by home invaders and paranormal encounters like alien abductions. SP affects about 20% of the population, and it is a common...
Previous studies have examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected dream recall, dream content, and nightmares. However, relatively little attention has been devoted to the individual and situational factors associated with pandemic-induced changes in dreams. The threat simulation theory of dreaming predicts that threatening situations in our waking life (situational factors) influence...
CureusApril 1, 2026Agni Nakou, Elena Dragioti, Stefanos Mantzoukas et al.
Sleep experiences in later life are shaped by multiple biological, psychological, and social factors. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined associations between subjective sleep quality, daytime napping, dream recall, and selected health and psychosocial variables in community-dwelling older adults, within a biopsychosocial framework. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was...
During lucid dreaming (LD), dreamers are aware that they are dreaming and may be able to influence the oneiric content. There has been recent debate about the relative importance of the ability to influence the dream and having agency over the pure awareness of dreaming. To underline this, we examined the associations of lucid dreams without agency (LD-Ag) and lucid dreams with agency (LD + Ag)...
Abstract 2025 sees the thirtieth anniversary of Revd Auntie Lenore Parker’s ‘God of Holy Dreaming’ being included in the Anglican Prayer Book for Australia. In this article, she explores and describes the dreaming process which birthed this prayer. The analysis which follows compares the value of dreams in aboriginal culture with the privileged place given to dreams and visions as altered...
Abstract INTRODUCTION Dreaming is subserved by the default mode network (DMN) and can be abolished by focal lesions within key regions. DMN dysfunction is promoted by pre‐clinical Alzheimer's pathology and apolipoprotein E ( APOE ) ε4 carriage, but any effects of these on dreaming are unknown. METHODS Associations between dream recall and APOE ε4 carriage and blood phosphorylated tau (p‐tau)...
Abstract Background Meta-analyses confirm caffeine’s sleep-disrupting effects, but qualitative insights into perceived disruptions in non-Western, high-pressure contexts remain scarce. Aim To examine how the timing of caffeine intake, culturally embedded in chai consumption, influences subjective and objective sleep onset latency and dream recall among Indian young adults, with particular...
All varieties of dreaming remain a mystery. Lucid dreams in particular, or those characterized by awareness of the dream, are notoriously difficult to study. Their scarce prevalence and resistance to deliberate induction make it difficult to obtain a sizeable corpus of lucid dream reports. The consequent lack of clarity around lucid dream phenomenology has left the many purported applications...