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The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares

Sam Fisher-Hicks, Vicky Lovett Orcid Logo, Rodger Wood, Mark Blagrove

Neuropsychologia, Volume: 217, Start page: 109209

Swansea University Authors: Vicky Lovett Orcid Logo, Rodger Wood, Mark Blagrove

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109209

Abstract

Mesial frontal and temporoparietal brain areas differ in activity between high and low dream recallers, and lesion studies have found cessation of dreaming in patients with damage to these areas. This study extends these findings by assessing the relationship of dream cessation, and dream and nightm...

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Published in: Neuropsychologia
ISSN: 0028-3932 1873-3514
Published: Elsevier BV 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69778
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last_indexed 2025-08-01T14:33:04Z
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spelling 2025-07-31T12:48:53.1146707 v2 69778 2025-06-20 The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares 674779bf758194200dff605efc495522 0000-0002-1897-1636 Vicky Lovett Vicky Lovett true false 7d67e475699a3b3ab820b4a5d2602dc9 Rodger Wood Rodger Wood true false 8c78ee008e650b9f0a463bae56a5636c Mark Blagrove Mark Blagrove true false 2025-06-20 PSYS Mesial frontal and temporoparietal brain areas differ in activity between high and low dream recallers, and lesion studies have found cessation of dreaming in patients with damage to these areas. This study extends these findings by assessing the relationship of dream cessation, and dream and nightmare frequencies, to severity of injury in patients at a head trauma clinic. 52 participants (M=36, F=16; mean age = 39.69, SD = 13.72) completed a questionnaire assessing frequency of dreams, nightmares and night terrors, tests for depression and anxiety, and a neuropsychological examination and test battery. 34.6% of patients reported that they do not dream, which is comparable to Solms' (1997) finding of 34.9% in his brain injury sample. This contrasts with the rate of not reporting dreams in the general population of 6.1 to 7.1%. Dream cessation participants had significantly greater severity of brain injury as measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale and post traumatic amnesia, but cessation was not related to neuropsychological scores. Compared to the general population there was a higher prevalence of weekly nightmares (13.5%) and also of reporting never having nightmares (48.1%), the former predicted by anxiety, the latter by brain injury severity. The data cannot distinguish between whether brain injury is halting the production of dreams or causes failure to encode and recall dreams on waking. Future studies using within-sleep behavioral or imaging methods may distinguish between these possibilities. Future studies should also determine if recovery of dream experience is predictive of more global recovery from brain injury. Journal Article Neuropsychologia 217 109209 Elsevier BV 0028-3932 1873-3514 Brain injury; dream cessation; dreaming; nightmares; night terrors 10 10 2025 2025-10-10 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109209 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2025-07-31T12:48:53.1146707 2025-06-20T12:46:05.2456677 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Sam Fisher-Hicks 1 Vicky Lovett 0000-0002-1897-1636 2 Rodger Wood 3 Mark Blagrove 4 69778__34849__6ba6537091c34826bd9aabae36940d49.pdf Fisher-Hicks_2025_Neuropsychologia_Journal.pdf 2025-07-26T19:21:10.6768287 Output 688599 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares
spellingShingle The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares
Vicky Lovett
Rodger Wood
Mark Blagrove
title_short The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares
title_full The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares
title_fullStr The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares
title_full_unstemmed The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares
title_sort The association of brain injury severity with dream cessation and nightmares
author_id_str_mv 674779bf758194200dff605efc495522
7d67e475699a3b3ab820b4a5d2602dc9
8c78ee008e650b9f0a463bae56a5636c
author_id_fullname_str_mv 674779bf758194200dff605efc495522_***_Vicky Lovett
7d67e475699a3b3ab820b4a5d2602dc9_***_Rodger Wood
8c78ee008e650b9f0a463bae56a5636c_***_Mark Blagrove
author Vicky Lovett
Rodger Wood
Mark Blagrove
author2 Sam Fisher-Hicks
Vicky Lovett
Rodger Wood
Mark Blagrove
format Journal article
container_title Neuropsychologia
container_volume 217
container_start_page 109209
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0028-3932
1873-3514
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109209
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 1
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description Mesial frontal and temporoparietal brain areas differ in activity between high and low dream recallers, and lesion studies have found cessation of dreaming in patients with damage to these areas. This study extends these findings by assessing the relationship of dream cessation, and dream and nightmare frequencies, to severity of injury in patients at a head trauma clinic. 52 participants (M=36, F=16; mean age = 39.69, SD = 13.72) completed a questionnaire assessing frequency of dreams, nightmares and night terrors, tests for depression and anxiety, and a neuropsychological examination and test battery. 34.6% of patients reported that they do not dream, which is comparable to Solms' (1997) finding of 34.9% in his brain injury sample. This contrasts with the rate of not reporting dreams in the general population of 6.1 to 7.1%. Dream cessation participants had significantly greater severity of brain injury as measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale and post traumatic amnesia, but cessation was not related to neuropsychological scores. Compared to the general population there was a higher prevalence of weekly nightmares (13.5%) and also of reporting never having nightmares (48.1%), the former predicted by anxiety, the latter by brain injury severity. The data cannot distinguish between whether brain injury is halting the production of dreams or causes failure to encode and recall dreams on waking. Future studies using within-sleep behavioral or imaging methods may distinguish between these possibilities. Future studies should also determine if recovery of dream experience is predictive of more global recovery from brain injury.
published_date 2025-10-10T05:24:49Z
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