Nightmare distress, beliefs about nightmares, and waking-life anxiety

Abstract

For the diagnosis of a nightmare disorder, the person should report clinically significant distress due to nightmares. Thus, research should focus on understanding the factors that might contribute to nightmare distress – in addition to the most obvious one, nightmare frequency. Overall, 285 persons (221 women, 60 men, 4 non-binary persons) with a mean age of 24.00 ± 5.51 years participated in the study. The findings of the present study indicated – as expected – that beliefs about nightmares, gender, and anxiety contribute independently – in addition to nightmare frequency – to nightmare distress. Identifying factors that are associated with being vulnerable to nightmare distress, can inform clinicians to better diagnose and treat persons who suffer from nightmares.