Measuring nightmare and bad dream frequency: impact of retrospective and prospective instruments

Studies on nightmare frequency have yielded inconsistent results. We compared the frequency of nightmares and bad dreams obtained with retrospective methods (annual and monthly estimates) and with two types of prospective measures (narrative and checklist logs). Four hundred and eleven participants completed retrospective estimates of nightmare and bad dream frequency and recorded their dreams in either narrative or checklist logs for 2-5 weeks. When measured prospectively with narrative logs, nightmare frequency was marginally higher than the 1-year estimate (P = 0.057) but not significantly different from the 1-month estimate (P > 0.05). Prospective bad dream frequency was significantly greater than the two retrospective estimates (ps < 0.0005). There were no significant differences in the frequency of nightmares and bad dreams reported prospectively with narrative versus checklist logs (ps > 0.05). However, checklist logs yielded a significantly greater number of everyday dreams per week (P < 0.0001). Taken together, the results provide partial support for the idea that when compared to daily logs, retrospective self-reports significantly underestimate current nightmare and bad dream frequency. Prospective studies of dream recall and nightmare frequency should take into account the type of log used, its duration, and the participants' level of motivation over time.     

Activity and Masochism

The author draws on his own experience of traumatized states to explicate what he calls the ontological unconscious—the loss of one's sense of being. He proposes that it is in the process through which emotional experience comes into language that the sense of being is born, and that the aborting of this process brings a loss of the sense of being. The loss and regaining of one's sense of being are profoundly context-dependent, hinging on whether the intersubjective contexts of one's living prohibit or welcome the coming into language of one's emotional experiences.     

Evaluation of Dream Content in Combat-Related PTSD

Nightmares that replicate traumatic events are among the criteria that define posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, there has been limited systematic assessment of the content of dreams in PTSD. A PTSD dream rating instrument was developed to ope rationalize features attributed to dreams associated with combat-related PTSD that incorporated dimensions from the dream content analysis literature, and its reliability was assessed. Then the instrument was used to characterize dream reports in 18 Vietnam combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Approximately half of the group's target dreams contained features characteristic of combat, and all but 3 (17%) were moderately to highly threatening. Fifty-three percent were set at least partially in the present and 79% contained distorted elements. We therefore conclude that target dreams of combat veterans with PTSD vary with regard to replication of trauma and elements normally associated with dreaming, but typically are threatening.     

Sleeping and dreams in learning-disabled boys

Ten learning-disabled (LD) boys were compared with eight control boys. The boys with learning difficulties reported shorter sleep latency but more frequent awakenings, longer nocturnal sleep, and increased complaints of daytime sleepiness than the controls. The dreams of the LD boys were less bizarre than those of the controls, and the LD boys used fewer words to describe their dreams. The findings may reflect a functional relation between experienced sleep-related difficulties, some components of dreams, and learning disabilities in school children.     

Sleep and circadian problems during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic: the International COVID‐19 Sleep Study (ICOSS)

This protocol paper describes the development of an international collaboration to survey several thousand adults from different countries around the world about their sleep during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. It is based on the development of a harmonised survey with 50 questions (106 different items) on sleep habits and sleep symptoms that permit comparability of information. The harmonised questionnaire may be used in anonymous cross‐sectional surveys, and the instruments within the questionnaire may also be used in prospective studies and clinical studies. The aim was to develop a questionnaire to sample a variety of sleep–wake disorders and other symptoms likely to be caused by prolonged social confinement or by having had COVID‐19. The questionnaire was designed to be: (a) simple and, (b) free to use, for research purposes, (c) multilingual, and (d) comprehensive. It can be completed in <30 min. By the end of June 2020, the survey questionnaire had been administered in Austria, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, UK and USA. Research questions to be addressed by the pooled data derived from the participating sites focus on describing the nature and rates of various sleep and circadian rhythms symptoms, as well as their psychological and medical correlates, that arise at various points during the COVID‐19 pandemic.     

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

The film Apocalypse Now, first released in 1979, is now recognized as Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece. Inspired by Joseph Conrad's 19th century novella Heart of Darkness, the film tells the story of a journey upriver into a threatening interior where the protagonists face the challenge of attack from an unseen and savage enemy, disease, madness and death. The film can be ‘read’ from a number of different perspectives: as representing the USA's conflict with Vietnam, as a journey into man's soul or, from a psychoanalytic perspective, as representing the unconscious. Derived from this perspective, the author questions why Apocalypse Now continues to have such resonance. Working with Matte Blanco's theory of the mind which he saw as manifesting a form of logic, and which he called bi-logic, the author interrogates three significant scenes from the film and argues that they can be understood to represent increasingly deeper levels of the unconscious. It is this evocation which makes the film unforgettable.     

住院抑郁症患者梦的内容研究

目的探讨抑郁症患者梦的特点以及其内容是否与疾病演变有关。方法根据CalvinHall的＂梦的内容分析（thecon-tent analysis of dreams）＂方法,分别记录住院抑郁症患者病前印象最深的梦、入院前1个月内、住院治疗2周内、住院2周后到4周内及出院前的梦,然后对其进行相关分析。结果共收集30例患者不同阶段的梦112个,平均每个梦（68.8±8.13）个字;患者在抑郁症病重期梦到友好行为的梦和不幸事件的梦较少,经治疗抑郁好转后梦中友好行为增加,自我负性评价减少。结论住院抑郁症患者的梦较为简短;梦的内容随病情的变化而有所不同。     

Post-traumatic stress disorder conflicts in Vietnam combat veterans: A confirmatory factor analytic study

Three hundred and thirty-nine Vietnam combat veterans with the diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder were administered the Vietnam Related Experiences Questionnaire. The items on this questionnaire were constructed to highlight four combat related conflicts postulated to represent the salient symptom clusters within PTSD: fear-anxiety, mistrust, survival guilt, and guilt secondary to aggression. Exploratory factor analysis followed by a confirmatory factor analytic procedure using maximum likelihood estimate demonstrated a five-factor solution: vulnerability, guilt, dreams of death/destruction, depression, and rebelliousness. The factor loadings of the variables and the factor correlations are discussed. Diagnostic features of the questionnaire are highlighted.