Nightmares During Childhood Give Rise To Adolescent Psychotic Disorders

24.9 percent of children aged 12 years reported having nightmares in the previous six months and 7.9 percent of the sample experienced psychotic symptoms.

A significant association between presence of persistent childhood nightmares and psychotic experiences in adolescence was discovered by University of Warwick researchers.

For the study, the team used a sample of 4,060 individuals from a British birth cohort.

Dreams and Nightmares That Recur - Why?
Some people have a specific dream or nightmare that occurs over and over again and the reason for this is the subject of investigation of a new study.

They used parental reports on their child's experience of regular nightmares between the ages of two and nine.

They then used interviews to assess experiences of nightmares, night terrors and sleep-walking at age 12 and psychotic experiences at age 18.

"The presence of anxiety and depressive symptoms as confounding factors in those with sleep disturbance could potentially explain the findings," said lead author Andrew Thompson from Warwick Medical School.

Sleep Talking, Sleep Terrors, Nightmares, sleep, Parasomnias, NREM, deep sleep
Sleep Talking, Sleep Terrors and Nightmares are sleep disorders, that commonly occur in children

There was around twice the odds of later experiencing psychotic symptoms in those earlier reporting nightmares.

"The research could have implications for the way early nightmares and night terrors are viewed and potentially addressed by professionals or carers," Thompson added.

Study: 1 in 5 Women Have Nightmares of Cheating Partners
One in five women frequently dream about their partners cheating on them, a new study has claimed.

"These initial results did suggest that specific parasomnias such as persistent nightmares in children could be a potential risk indicator for the development of psychotic experiences and possible psychotic disorder," Thompson said.

The study appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Turn Your Worst Nightmares into Beautiful Dreams
Researchers have suggested a method by which we can turn our scariest nightmares into happy dreams so that we can go back to sleep peacefully.

Source-IANS