Nightmares do result in psychophysiological arousal

• Verfasst von: Paul, Franc [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Alpers, Georg W. [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Reinhard, Iris [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Schredl, Michael [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Nightmares do result in psychophysiological arousal
• Titelzusatz: a multimeasure ambulatory assessment study
• Verf.angabe: Franc Paul, Georg W. Alpers, Iris Reinhard, Michael Schredl
• E-Jahr: 2019
• Jahr: July 2019
• Umfang: 16 S.
• Fussnoten: First published 30 March 2019 ; Gesehen am 01.10.2019
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Psychophysiology
• Ort Quelle: Malden, Mass. [u.a.] : Wiley-Blackwell, 1964
• Jahr Quelle: 2019
• Band/Heft Quelle: 56(2019,7), Artikel-Nummer e13366, 16 Seiten
• ISSN Quelle: 1469-8986
• ISSN Quelle: 1540-5958
• DOI: doi:10.1111/psyp.13366
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 167802015X

Abstract

Individuals who frequently experience nightmares report compromised sleep quality, poor daytime mood, and functioning. Previous research has aimed at linking these impairments with altered sleep architecture, but results were inconclusive. One plau-sible explanation is that only a few studies recorded markers of autonomic nervous system activity. For the first time, this study collected such markers under ecologi-cally valid conditions with ambulatory assessment. In 19 individuals with frequent nightmares (≥1 nightmare/week) and 19 healthy control participants (<1 nightmare/month), measures indicating autonomic activation (heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration cycle length, electrodermal fluctuations, EEG arousals, saliva cortisol, REM density) were collected while applying ambulatory polysomnographic assess-ment during 3 consecutive nights. When nightmare participants reported a night-mare, we analyzed the last 5 min of REM sleep before awakening and compared these data to their non‐nightmares as well as to the dream episodes of control participants [...]