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Measuring Neural Mechanisms Underlying Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation During Naps in Early Childhood
Published on: October 2, 2019
Delusional confusion of dreaming and reality in narcolepsy
Erin Wamsley1, Claire E H M Donjacour2, Thomas E Scammell3
1Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA ; Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA ; Department of Psychology, Furman University, Greenville, SC.
Study Objectives:
We investigated a generally unappreciated feature of the sleep disorder narcolepsy, in which patients mistake the memory of a dream for a real experience and form sustained delusions about significant events.
Design:
We interviewed patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls to establish the prevalence of this complaint and identify its predictors.
Setting:
Academic medical centers in Boston, Massachusetts and Leiden, The Netherlands.
Participants:
Patients (n = 46) with a diagnosis of narcolepsy with cataplexy, and age-matched healthy healthy controls (n = 41).
Interventions:
N/A.
Measurements And Results:
"Dream delusions" were surprisingly common in narcolepsy and were often striking in their severity. As opposed to fleeting hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations of the sleep/wake transition, dream delusions were false memories induced by the experience of a vivid dream, which led to false beliefs that could persist for days or weeks.
Conclusions:
The delusional confusion of dreamed events with reality is a prominent feature of narcolepsy, and suggests the possibility of source memory deficits in this disorder that have not yet been fully characterized.
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