Nightmares do result in psychophysiological arousal: A multimeasure ambulatory assessment study.

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 plausible explanation is that only a few studies recorded markers of autonomic nervous system activity.

Nightmares affect the experience of sleep quality but not sleep architecture: an ambulatory polysomnographic study.

Background: Nightmares and bad dreams are common in people with emotional disturbances. For example, nightmares are a core symptom in posttraumatic stress disorder and about 50% of borderline personality disorder patients suffer from frequent nightmares. Independent of mental disorders, nightmares are often associated with sleep problems such as prolonged sleep latencies, poorer sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness.

Pineal gland volume in primary insomnia and healthy controls: a magnetic resonance imaging study.

Little is known about the relation between pineal volume and insomnia. Melatonin promotes sleep processes and, administered as a drug, it is suitable to improve primary and secondary sleep disorders in humans. Recent magnetic resonance imaging studies suggest that human plasma and saliva melatonin levels are partially determined by the pineal gland volume.

Sleep and dreaming in patients with borderline personality disorder: a polysomnographic study.

Previous research has demonstrated disturbances in sleep continuity in subjects with borderline personality disorders (BPD). Moreover, depression-like sleep abnormalities like reduced REM latency have been found in BPD subjects, even without comorbid major depression disorder. Yet it is still unknown what the effect is of co-morbid posttraumatic stress disorder on sleep continuity and dream content in BPD patients group.