Introduction Nightmares can cause poorer sleep quality. Various mechanisms have been explored as potential treatments for nightmares, including mindfulness practices and lucid dreaming. Presently, little literature has looked at the interaction effects between mindfulness and lucid dreaming to reduce nightmare distress. Methods A sample of 275 individuals was recruited from both the United States and Thailand via social media and a student pool of research subjects at UNC Charlotte. Data were recorded on participants’ demographic information, lucid dreaming from the Lucidity and Consciousness in Dreams Scale (Voss et al., 2013), Mindfulness using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionaire (Baer et al., 2006), Nighmares via the Nightmare Distress Questionaire (Belicki, 1992), and sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI; Buysse et al., 1989). Higher scores on each measure were associated with more lucid dreaming, more mindful behaviors, more severe nightmares, and poorer sleep quality. PROCESS model 8 was run to conduct a moderated mediation analysis (Hayes, 2018). Lucid dreaming was used as the predictor; sleep quality as the outcome variable, nightmare distress as the mediator and mindfulness acted as a moderator on both the direct and indirect pathway of lucid dreaming onto the mediator and outcome. Results Mindfulness was a significant predictor at both the mediator and outcome variables. Nightmare distress was a significant predictor of sleep quality. A statistical trend (p=.054) suggests lucid dreaming may have a positive effect on nightmare distress. In the indirect path, lucid dreaming had a positive effect on PSQI scores only for individuals with low mindfulness. Conclusion The moderated mediation suggests that individuals with low mindfulness may see a decrease in sleep quality from lucid dreaming. This could be due to lucid dreaming being associated with more severe nightmares. A zero-effect size could not be ruled out of the confidence intervals for individuals of average or high mindfulness, but the data suggest that lucid dreaming alone may not help treat nightmares, but the combination of lucid dreaming and mindfulness therapies could promote lower distress and better sleep quality. Support Psychological Sciences departmental funding
Nightmares can yield deleterious effects on sleep quality; therefore, it is important to identify modifiable predictors of nightmare distress in order to promote better sleep outcomes. Lucid dreaming and trait mindfulness are both associated with decreased nightmares and may indirectly improve sleep quality; furthermore, these factors may have synergistic effects. To test this, a moderated mediation model was examined. Contrary to our hypothesis, results showed that lucid dreaming was associated with greater nightmare distress, which predicted worse sleep quality, but this effect was moderated by total mindfulness and the subfacet of acting with awareness. For individuals with low and average mindfulness, lucid dreaming increased nightmare distress, yielding a negative indirect effect on sleep quality. These effects were not seen for individuals with high mindfulness; rather, a trend emerged in which lucid dreaming for individuals high in mindfulness may improve sleep quality via lowered nightmare distress. Findings can inform nonmedical approaches to reducing nightmare distress and suggest that abilities in lucid dreaming may only yield benefits on reducing nightmares and corresponding sleep quality among individuals who also possess high mindfulness skills, particularly acting with awareness and nonjudgemental mindfulness.
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