Changes in dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and lucid dream frequency over a 3-year period.

Schredl, Michael; Göritz, Anja S.

doi:10.1037/a0039165

Cited by 20 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“… 72 , 132 , 133 Anyway, these results are not ever confirmed, considering a recent longitudinal study showing that dream recall rates remain stable within 3 years in 75% of the participants included in an extensive online investigation (two groups of 2872 and 2929 persons). 143 Anyway, these results do not completely exclude an interpretation in terms of declined cognitive performance. Specifically, in a recent study, Nielsen 72 assessed dream recall frequency and theme diversity in the life span of an individual, through an online questionnaire.…”

Section: Dreaming In Elderlymentioning

confidence: 80%

“…However, we are aware that other factors influence sleep mentation. As an example, some studies revealed that gender differences, gender orientation, 72 , 143 – 145 and personality 146 also affect dream recall frequency and dream features. However, it should be underlined that the aim of this review was not to be exhaustive of the vast and complex body of literature on dreaming, but to offer a guideline for further investigations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams

Mangiaruga¹,

Scarpelli²,

Bartolacci³

et al. 2018

NSS

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Brain and sleep maturation covary across different stages of life. At the same time, dream generation and dream recall are intrinsically dependent on the development of neural systems. The aim of this paper is to review the existing studies about dreaming in infancy, adulthood, and the elderly stage of life, assessing whether dream mentation may reflect changes of the underlying cerebral activity and cognitive processes. It should be mentioned that some evidence from childhood investigations, albeit still weak and contrasting, revealed a certain correlation between cognitive skills and specific features of dream reports. In this respect, infantile amnesia, confabulatory reports, dream-reality discerning, and limitation in language production and emotional comprehension should be considered as important confounding factors. Differently, growing evidence in adults suggests that the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the encoding and retrieval of episodic memories may remain the same across different states of consciousness. More directly, some studies on adults point to shared neural mechanisms between waking cognition and corresponding dream features. A general decline in the dream recall frequency is commonly reported in the elderly, and it is explained in terms of a diminished interest in dreaming and in its emotional salience. Although empirical evidence is not yet available, an alternative hypothesis associates this reduction to an age-related cognitive decline. The state of the art of the existing knowledge is partially due to the variety of methods used to investigate dream experience. Very few studies in elderly and no investigations in childhood have been performed to understand whether dream recall is related to specific electrophysiological pattern at different ages. Most of all, the lack of longitudinal psychophysiological studies seems to be the main issue. As a main message, we suggest that future longitudinal studies should collect dream reports upon awakening from different sleep states and include neurobiological measures with cognitive performances.

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Section: Dreaming In Elderlymentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams

Mangiaruga¹,

Scarpelli²,

Bartolacci³

et al. 2018

NSS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some evidences point in this direction, since a general reduction in dream recall frequency (DRF), as evaluated by retrospective questionnaires, has been found in older adults (18–22). However, this finding has been confuted by a longitudinal study (23) and a decrease of DRF has also been found in middle-adulthood (28–38 years) (19, 20). Notwithstanding, it is surprising that, to date, the effect of aging on dreaming has been so poorly investigated with an EEG approach (10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Oscillatory EEG Activity During REM Sleep in Elderly People Predicts Subsequent Dream Recall After Awakenings

et al. 2019

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Several findings underlined that the electrophysiological (EEG) background of the last segment of sleep before awakenings may predict the presence/absence of dream recall (DR) in young subjects. However, little is known about the EEG correlates of DR in elderly people. Only an investigation found differences between recall and non-recall conditions during NREM sleep EEG in older adults, while—surprisingly—no EEG predictor of DR was found for what concerns REM sleep. Considering REM sleep as a privileged scenario to produce mental sleep activity related to cognitive processes, our study aimed to investigate whether specific EEG topography and frequency changes during REM sleep in elderly people may predict a subsequent recall of mental sleep activity. Twenty-one healthy older volunteers (mean age 69.2 ± 6.07 SD) and 20 young adults (mean age 23.4 ± 2.76 SD) were recorded for one night from 19 scalp derivations. Dreams were collected upon morning awakenings from REM sleep. EEG signals of the last 5 min were analyzed by the Better OSCillation algorithm to detect the peaks of oscillatory activity in both groups. Statistical comparisons revealed that older as well as young individuals recall their dream experience when the last segment of REM sleep is characterized by frontal theta oscillations. No Recall (Recall vs. Non-Recall) × Age (Young vs. Older) interaction was found. This result replicated the previous evidence in healthy young subjects, as shown in within- and between-subjects design. The findings are completely original for older individuals, demonstrating that theta oscillations are crucial for the retrieval of dreaming also in this population. Furthermore, our results did not confirm a greater presence of the theta activity in healthy aging. Conversely, we found a greater amount of rhythmic theta and alpha activity in young than older participants. It is worth noting that the theta oscillations detected are related to cognitive functioning. We emphasize the notion that the oscillatory theta activity should be distinguished from the non-rhythmic theta activity identified in relation to other phenomena such as (a) sleepiness and hypoarousal conditions during the waking state and (b) cortical slowing, considered as an EEG alteration in clinical samples.

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“…Overall, the findings of the present study indicated that children can suffer from bad dreams, operationalized as frequent bedtime fear due to these bad dreams, especially if they also show high trait anxiety. Given the stability of nightmare frequency in childhood [35,46] and adulthood [36,37], it would be beneficial to study the prevalence and correlates of nightmare disorder in children and adolescents more intensely, and-if necessary-intervene with the very effective Imagery Rehearsal Therapy [45].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bad dreams, bedtime anxiety, and trait anxiety in school-aged children

Schredl

2020

Somnologie

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Background and objectives Occasional nightmares (distressing dreams that awaking the sleeper) and bad dreams (distressing dreams that do not awaking the sleeper) are very common in children and adolescents. About 5% of children experience frequent nightmares (once a week or more often) and the question arises as to what factors contribute to significant nightmare distress which is basic for diagnosing a nightmare disorder. Materials and methods A sample of 624 school-aged children (10–16 years; mean age 12.45 ± 1.33 years) completed a dream questionnaire and an anxiety inventory. Results About 11% of the participants reported frequent bad dreams; 3.5% reported frequent bedtime anxieties due to bad dreams. Similar to the findings in adults, distress due to bad dreams was not only related to bad dream frequency but also to trait anxiety—controlling for the direct effect of trait anxiety on bad dream frequency, i.e., bad dream frequency and trait anxiety contributed independently to bedtime anxiety due to bad dreams. In the exploratory part, the cultural background of the children’s parents showed only minor effects on bad dreams. Conclusion Similar to nightmare studies in adults, bad dream frequency and trait anxiety contributed independently to bad dream distress. Based on the current diagnostic criteria of the nightmare disorder, it would be interesting to have the opportunity to treat children with significant distress due to nightmares or bad dreams and study the long-term benefit—given that many adult nightmare sufferers reported that their nightmares started in childhood.

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Changes in dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and lucid dream frequency over a 3-year period.

Cited by 20 publications

References 28 publications

Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams

Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams

Oscillatory EEG Activity During REM Sleep in Elderly People Predicts Subsequent Dream Recall After Awakenings

Bad dreams, bedtime anxiety, and trait anxiety in school-aged children

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