Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan:77:315-322.
doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.08.014. Epub 2020 Aug 17.

The relationship between nightmares and psychotic experiences in young adults

Mathias K Kammerer  1 , Konstantin Bub  2 , Tania M Lincoln  2
Affiliations

The relationship between nightmares and psychotic experiences in young adults

Mathias K Kammerer et al. Sleep Med. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Background: There is indication that frequent nightmares are an early indicator of psychotic disorders in adolescents and young adults. Yet which aspects of nightmares are relevant and how they contribute to psychotic experiences has remained unclear.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey in a community sample of young adults between the ages of 18 and 27 (n = 486) to identify aspects of nightmares (nightmare frequency (NF), nightmare distress (ND), nightmare contents), that are related to specific psychotic experiences (paranoid thoughts, hallucinations, negative symptoms) after controlling for sleep quality, and examined factors that potentially mediate this relationship (stress, depression).

Results: Nightmare frequency and -distress were significantly associated with paranoid thoughts, hallucinations and negative symptoms (NF: rs = 0.293 - 0.139; ND: rs = 0.411 - 0.166). Nightmares significantly added to explaining paranoid thoughts and hallucinations, over and above sleep quality, but not to explaining negative symptoms. The relations between nightmare distress and psychotic experiences were partially mediated by stress (percentage mediated for paranoid thoughts: 38.20%; for hallucinations: 11.77%) and depression (percentage mediated for paranoid thoughts: 56.61%; for hallucinations: 28.02%). The most commonly reported nightmare contents revolved around being chased, falling and losing a close relative and specific contents were significantly related to the frequency of hallucinations (eg, threatening surroundings, OR = 1.73) or paranoia (eg, workspace bullying, OR = 2.02).

Conclusions: Thorough assessments of nightmares and sleep disturbances in young individuals could facilitate early detection of those at risk and help to target preventive treatments. However, longitudinal studies are needed to test for a causal relationship between nightmares and the development of psychotic symptoms.

Keywords: Dreams; Parasomnia; Risk factor; Schizophrenia; Sleep disruption.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare no potential conflict of interests regarding the present study. The ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest associated with this article can be viewed by clicking on the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2020.08.014.

Comment in

LinkOut - more resources