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Updated: Aug 22, 2025

A Chronic Sleep Fragmentation Model using Vibrating Orbital Rotor to Induce Cognitive Deficit and Anxiety-Like Behavior in Young Wild-Type Mice
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Symptom dynamics among nightmare sufferers: An intensive longitudinal study.

Britta Dumser1, Gabriela G Werner1, Thomas Ehring1

  • 1Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.

Journal of Sleep Research
|November 9, 2022
PubMed
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Fear of sleep and poor sleep quality significantly worsen nightmare distress in women. Understanding individual differences is key to personalized nightmare treatment strategies.

Keywords:
actigraphyambulatory assessmentfear of sleephyperarousalinsomniasleep diary

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Sleep Medicine
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Nightmares are common and linked to mental health disorders.
  • Immediate triggers and effects of nightmares require further investigation.
  • Understanding within-person associations is crucial for effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine night-to-night associations between nightmares and fear of sleep, pre-sleep arousal, and sleep quality.
  • To identify individual differences in these associations.
  • To explore the role of fear of sleep in nightmare etiology.

Main Methods:

  • Intensive longitudinal assessments over ~30 days in young women with regular nightmares (n=16).
  • Daily sleep diaries recording nightmares, sleep quality, pre-sleep arousal, and fear of sleep.
  • Objective sleep parameters measured using actigraphy.
  • Multilevel modeling to analyze within-person associations.

Main Results:

  • Higher fear of sleep and lower subjective sleep quality were significantly associated with increased nightmare distress.
  • Individual differences in the strength of these associations were observed.
  • Pre-sleep arousal did not show significant associations with nightmares or fear of sleep.

Conclusions:

  • Fear of sleep plays a critical role in the experience of nightmares and sleep disturbances.
  • Personalized models are needed to explain individual variations in nightmare triggers.
  • Targeting fear of sleep may be a key therapeutic strategy for nightmare sufferers.