Emotional Dream Content of Acute Trauma Patients: Associations with Interpersonal Violence, Nightmares, and PTSD

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

5-19-2025

Publication Title

Sleep

Abstract

Introduction: Dreams are involved in the processing of emotions and can serve as markers of emotional distress. The authors developed a rating scale for affect in dreams and applied it to an acute trauma population. Methods: We recruited 88 patients hospitalized within one week following traumatic injury (Mage = 39.53 ± 14.31 years, 67.0% male, 67.0% Black). Patients who recalled a dream since hospi talization recorded their dream (n = 43). An independent rater scored the dreams using a novel 33-item Affective Neuroscience Dream Rating Scale to indicate the presence of fear, rage, grief, seeking, care, play, and lust. We quantified the emotional valence of dreams by summing positive (seeking + care + play + lust) and negative emotions (fear + rage + grief) and explored their associations with interpersonal violence and clinical outcomes approximately one-month post-trauma. Results: The emotional valence of dreams across all patients was significantly more negative (M = 4.84 ± 2.91) than posi tive (M = 1.26 ± 1.16), p <.001. Experiencing negatively toned dreams was associated with increased odds of being hospitalized for interpersonal violence (OR = 1.45, p =.014, 95% CI = 1.08 – 1.96) and more severe acute stress symptoms (β = 0.36, p =.021), regardless of sex. Reporting more negatively toned dreams dur ing hospitalization prospectively predicted risk for trauma-re lated nightmares one month later (OR = 1.73, p =.045, 95% CI = 1.01 – 2.97), adjusting for time, and was prospectively associated with increased nightmare distress (r =.70, p <.001), night terrors (r =.37, p =.042), and PTSD status (r =.44, p =.033). The dreams of patients who went on to screen positive for PTSD one month after trauma were significantly more negative (M = 5.99) than patients without PTSD (M = 3.70), p =.038, ηp2 = 19, indicating a large effect. Conclusion: Negative affective tone in dreams immediately after trauma predicted subsequent nightmares and future PTSD and can provide a potential tool for assessing PTSD risk in acute trauma patients.

Volume

48

First Page

A509

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