Nightmares in PTSD

A common complaint of PTSD patients is the recurrent incidence of terrifying nightmares, occurring throughout the duration of nocturnal sleep. Patients often report dream sequences that seem to repeat themselves and that appear to be related to their traumatic experiences. Frequently, this leads to sleep-related anxiety and reduced sleep quality. In an attempt to investigate the sleep-related precursors and concomitants of these nightmares, we conducted a pilot study on 6 female PTSD in-patients complaining about nightmares and 6 outpatient controls with undisturbed sleep. Participants were monitored using stand…