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Nightmares and Night Terrors01:18

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Nightmares and night terrors represent two distinct types of sleep disturbances that differ in timing, characteristics, and the sleeper's recall of the event. Nightmares are vivid, disturbing dreams that usually awaken the sleeper from REM sleep, a stage of sleep where brain activity is high, and dreams are most frequent. Upon awakening, individuals often have detailed recollections of their nightmares, which can include themes of threats to survival, security, or self-esteem.
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While variables are sometimes correlated because one does cause the other, it could also be that some other factor, a confounding variable, is actually causing the systematic movement in our variables of interest. For instance, as sales in ice cream increase, so does the overall rate of crime. Is it possible that indulging in your favorite flavor of ice cream could send you on a crime spree? Or, after committing crime do you think you might decide to treat yourself to a cone?
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REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) is a sleep disorder characterized by the absence of muscle paralysis that normally occurs during the REM phase of sleep. This absence allows individuals to physically act out their dreams, which are often vivid and disturbing. Common behaviors exhibited during episodes include kicking, punching, and yelling. These actions can be dangerous, potentially leading to injuries for the person with RBD or their bed partner.
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Nightmares in the elderly: Associations with self-reported executive functions.

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Reduced cognitive control in older adults is linked to more severe nightmares, emotional reactivity, and dream enactment behaviors (DEBs). This decline impacts executive functions, affecting emotional regulation and dream experiences.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Gerontology
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Nightmare phenomenology in the elderly is not fully understood.
  • Cognitive control is crucial for emotional regulation and dream processing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe nightmare phenomenology in community-dwelling elderly.
  • To test if reduced cognitive control correlates with nightmare frequency, severity, emotional reactivity, imagery immersion, and dream enactment behaviors (DEBs).

Main Methods:

  • Study 1: Survey and regression analyses on individuals with frequent nightmares and matched controls.
  • Study 2: Computational simulation to model and infer causality between cognitive control and nightmare phenomenology.

Main Results:

  • Regression analyses revealed a significant association between reduced cognitive control and more extreme nightmare experiences.
  • Computational simulations validated empirical findings and supported the causal theory linking cognitive control to nightmare phenomenology.

Conclusions:

  • Declining executive functions and cognitive control in aging individuals impair emotional regulation.
  • This impairment contributes to increased nightmare severity, emotional reactivity, imagery immersion, and dream enactment behaviors (DEBs).