TY - JOUR

T1 - The sensory construction of dreams and nightmare frequency in congenitally blind and late blind individuals

AU - Meaidi, Amani

AU - Jennum, Poul

AU - Ptito, Maurice

AU - Kupers, Ron

N1 - Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess dream content in groups of congenitally blind (CB), late blind (LB), and age- and sex-matched sighted control (SC) participants.METHODS: We conducted an observational study of 11 CB, 14 LB, and 25 SC participants and collected dream reports over a 4-week period. Every morning participants filled in a questionnaire related to the sensory construction of the dream, its emotional and thematic content, and the possible occurrence of nightmares. We also assessed participants' ability of visual imagery during waking cognition, sleep quality, and depression and anxiety levels.RESULTS: All blind participants had fewer visual dream impressions compared to SC participants. In LB participants, duration of blindness was negatively correlated with duration, clarity, and color content of visual dream impressions. CB participants reported more auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory dream components compared to SC participants. In contrast, LB participants only reported more tactile dream impressions. Blind and SC participants did not differ with respect to emotional and thematic dream content. However, CB participants reported more aggressive interactions and more nightmares compared to the other two groups.CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that blindness considerably alters the sensory composition of dreams and that onset and duration of blindness plays an important role. The increased occurrence of nightmares in CB participants may be related to a higher number of threatening experiences in daily life in this group.

AB - OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess dream content in groups of congenitally blind (CB), late blind (LB), and age- and sex-matched sighted control (SC) participants.METHODS: We conducted an observational study of 11 CB, 14 LB, and 25 SC participants and collected dream reports over a 4-week period. Every morning participants filled in a questionnaire related to the sensory construction of the dream, its emotional and thematic content, and the possible occurrence of nightmares. We also assessed participants' ability of visual imagery during waking cognition, sleep quality, and depression and anxiety levels.RESULTS: All blind participants had fewer visual dream impressions compared to SC participants. In LB participants, duration of blindness was negatively correlated with duration, clarity, and color content of visual dream impressions. CB participants reported more auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory dream components compared to SC participants. In contrast, LB participants only reported more tactile dream impressions. Blind and SC participants did not differ with respect to emotional and thematic dream content. However, CB participants reported more aggressive interactions and more nightmares compared to the other two groups.CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that blindness considerably alters the sensory composition of dreams and that onset and duration of blindness plays an important role. The increased occurrence of nightmares in CB participants may be related to a higher number of threatening experiences in daily life in this group.

KW - Adult

KW - Auditory Perception

KW - Blindness

KW - Case-Control Studies

KW - Dreams

KW - Emotions

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Pain

KW - Sleep

KW - Smell

KW - Taste

KW - Touch Perception

KW - Visual Perception

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1016/j.sleep.2013.12.008

DO - 10.1016/j.sleep.2013.12.008

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24709309

VL - 15

SP - 586

EP - 595

JO - Sleep Medicine

JF - Sleep Medicine

SN - 1389-9457

IS - 5

ER -