Dream Recall Frequency and Unusual Dream Experiences in Early Adolescence: Longitudinal Links to Behavior Problems

Soffer‐Dudek, Nirit; Sadeh, Avi

doi:10.1111/jora.12007

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…This tendency to hold on to distress, whether during daytime or nighttime, may be the explanation for some enigmatic findings. Specifically, Soffer-Dudek and Sadeh ( 2013 ) found that self-reported unusual dreaming in children predicted an increase in parental ratings of the children's behavior problems (internalizing and externalizing) from age 10 to 12; this suggested that unusual dreaming identified somewhat covert distress or potential for psychopathology, undetectable by parents at age 10. Similarly, Soffer-Dudek ( 2016 ) also demonstrated that GSEs may reflect covert aspects of distress.…”

Section: The Paradox Of Intrusion: Notes On the Traits That Lead To Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology

Soffer‐Dudek

2017

Front. Psychol.

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The term “sleep experiences,” coined by Watson (2001), denotes an array of unusual nocturnal consciousness phenomena; for example, nightmares, vivid or recurrent dreams, hypnagogic hallucinations, dreams of falling or flying, confusional arousals, and lucid dreams. Excluding the latter, these experiences reflect a single factor of atypical oneiric cognitions (“general sleep experiences”). The current study is an opinionated mini-review on the associations of this factor—measured with the Iowa sleep experiences survey (ISES, Watson, 2001)—with psychopathological symptoms and stress. Findings support a strong relation between psychological distress and general sleep experiences. It is suggested that that they should be viewed as a sleep disturbance; they seem to represent involuntary intrusions of wakefulness into sleep, resulting in aroused sleep. These intrusions may stem from excessively thin boundaries between consciousness states (e.g., “transliminality”), or, conversely, they may follow an attempt at disconnecting mental elements (e.g., dissociation), which paradoxically results in a “rebound effect.” The extent to which unusual dreaming is experienced as intrusive, rather than controlled, may explain why general sleep experiences are related to psychopathology, whereas lucid dreams are related to psychological resilience. In conclusion, the exploration of the interplay between psychopathology and sleep should be expanded from focusing almost exclusively on quantitative aspects (e.g., sleep efficiency, latency) to including qualitative conscious experiences which may reflect poor sleep quality. Taking into account nocturnal consciousness—including unusual dreaming and permeable sleep-wake boundaries—may unveil rich information on night-time emotional states and broaden our definition of poor sleep quality.

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Section: The Paradox Of Intrusion: Notes On the Traits That Lead To Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology

Soffer‐Dudek

2017

Front. Psychol.

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“…Anomalous sleep experiences, in fact, show significant—even substantial—associations with other types of psychopathology (Soffer-Dudek & Sadeh, 2013; Soffer-Dudek & Shahar, 2010, 2011). For example, Soffer-Dudek and Shahar (2009) and Soffer-Dudek, Shalev, Shiber, and Shahar (2011) both reported moderate associations between the ISES General Sleep Experiences scale and the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1983), which assesses a broad range of psychological symptoms.…”

Section: Broader Psychopathological Correlatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explicating the psychopathological correlates of anomalous sleep experiences.

Watson¹,

Stasik²,

Ellickson‐Larew³

et al. 2015

Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice

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The goal of this study was to explicate the nature of the associations between anomalous sleep experiences-that is, phenomena such as hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, and nightmares-and psychopathology. The participants were 406 adults, nearly half of whom (46.3%) had received-or were currently receiving-mental health treatment. We examined a more comprehensive range of psychopathology (both self-reported symptoms and interview-based diagnoses) than has been measured in previous research; the assessment battery contained multiple indicators of internalizing (including both depression and anxiety), substance use, bipolar disorder, dissociation, and psychosis/schizotypy. In addition, we examined the incremental predictive power of anomalous sleep experiences in relation to the Big Five personality traits. An Anomalous Sleep Experiences factor was defined by 4 variables: the General Sleep Experiences scale of the Iowa Sleep Experiences Survey, plus the Sleep Hallucinations, Sleep Paralysis, and Nightmares scales from the Iowa Sleep Disturbances Inventory. Anomalous Sleep Experiences was strongly and broadly related to self-rated and interview-based indicators of psychopathology, and also displayed impressive incremental predictive power vis-a `-vis the Big Five. Anomalous Sleep Experiences exhibited substantial specificity in the self-report data: As predicted, it correlated more strongly with dissociation, positive schizotypy, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and panic disorder than with other symptoms. The interview-based analyses showed less specificity, although Anomalous Sleep Experiences again demonstrated relatively strong associations with psychotic disorders. Overall, our data indicate that anomalous sleep experiences are broadly related to psychopathology, with particularly strong links to dissociation and positive symptoms of psychosis/schizotypy.

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“…Notably, LD represents a “mixed state” between waking and sleeping consciousness ( Mahowald and Schenck, 2001 ; Voss et al, 2009 ); other unusual dream phenomena representing mixed sleep-wake states (e.g., nightmares, recurring dreams, vivid dreams, kinesthetic dreams, and hypnagogic hallucinations) have been consistently positively associated with several psychopathological symptoms (such as depression and anxiety), stress, and negative affect, and have been viewed as representing an intrusion of waking arousal into the sleeping consciousness ( Soffer-Dudek and Shahar, 2011 ; Soffer-Dudek, 2017a ). In fact, they seem to be an early marker of covert psychological distress ( Soffer-Dudek and Sadeh, 2013 ; Soffer-Dudek, 2016 ), and may be viewed as an indicator of poor sleep quality ( Soffer-Dudek, 2017a ). Thus, experiencing waking awareness within the dream state may be hypothesized to relate to psychopathological distress variables.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lucid Dreaming: Intensity, But Not Frequency, Is Inversely Related to Psychopathology

Aviram

Soffer‐Dudek

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Lucid dreaming (LD) is awareness that one is dreaming, during the dream state. However, some define and assess LD relying also on controlling dream events, although control is present only in a subset of lucid dreams. LD has been claimed to represent well-being, and has even been used as a therapeutic agent. Conversely, LD is associated with mixed sleep-wake states, which are related to bizarre cognitions, stress, and psychopathology, and have been construed as arousal permeating and disrupting sleep. We propose that previous conflicting findings regarding relations between LD and both psychopathology and well-being, stem from the non-differentiated assessment of frequency and control. The present study aimed to develop an expansive measure of several LD characteristics (the Frequency and Intensity Lucid Dream questionnaire; FILD), and explore their relations with symptomatology. Undergraduate students (N = 187) self-reported trait LD, psychopathology (depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, dissociation, and schizotypy), stress, and sleep problems; 2 months later, a subsample (n = 78) reported psychopathology again, and also completed a dream diary each morning for 14 days. Preliminary evidence supports the reliability and validity of the FILD. Items converged into four domains: frequency, intensity (e.g., control, activity, certainty of dreaming), emotional valence, and the use of induction techniques. We report an optimal frequency cutoff score to identify those likely to experience LD within a 2-week period. Whereas LD frequency was unrelated to psychopathology, LD intensity, and positive LD emotions, were inversely associated with several psychopathological symptoms. Use of deliberate induction techniques was positively associated with psychopathology and sleep problems. Additionally, we demonstrated directionality by employing a prospective-longitudinal design, showing that deliberate LD induction predicted an increase in dissociation and schizotypy symptoms across 2 months. We conclude that lucidity should not be considered as necessarily suggestive of well-being; LD may be positive or negative, depending on lucidity characteristics. Additionally, deliberate LD induction may harbor negative long-term risk.

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Dream Recall Frequency and Unusual Dream Experiences in Early Adolescence: Longitudinal Links to Behavior Problems

Cited by 11 publications

References 91 publications

Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology

Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology

Explicating the psychopathological correlates of anomalous sleep experiences.

Lucid Dreaming: Intensity, But Not Frequency, Is Inversely Related to Psychopathology

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