TY - JOUR
PY - 2022//
TI - Nightmare distress is related to traumatic childhood experiences, critical life events and emotional appraisal of a dream rather than to its content
JO - Journal of sleep research
A1 - Mathes, Jonas
A1 - Schuffelen, Jennifer
A1 - Gieselmann, Annika
A1 - Pietrowsky, Reinhard
SP - ePub
EP - ePub
VL - ePub
IS - ePub
N2 - Nightmares are a substantial burden for sleep quality. Previous studies have shown that traumatic experiences can increase the probability of nightmares, and also waking-life distress can enhance this effect. There is evidence that the intensity of negative dream emotions is more responsible for rating a dream as a nightmare than threatening dream contents. However, there is still a lack of research concerning effects on nightmare distress. We hypothesise that traumatic childhood experiences (such as emotional abuse, obtained by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire), critical life events (obtained by the Social Readjustment Rating Scale) and threatening dream contents are associated with nightmare distress. A sample of N = 103 participants kept a dream diary over 28 consecutive days. About 60% of the sample were frequent nightmare dreamers. The participants recorded their violent dream contents and dream emotions in their diary. To predict nightmare distress, regression models were constructed; nightmare distress was measured with the Nightmare Distress Questionnaire.
RESULTS showed that emotional abuse in childhood and critical life events predicted nightmare distress. Moreover, violent dream contents were associated with nightmare distress but, after we controlled for nightmare frequency and the intensity of negative dream emotions, the significant impact of violent dream contents decreased. The results suggest that the emotional appraisal of a dream has a substantial influence on nightmares in addition to traumatic childhood experiences and critical life events. Language: en
LA - en
SN - 0962-1105
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13779
ID - ref1
ER -