Nightmares: the science and solution of those frightening visions during sleep

Tables and figures

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Approach to the study of nightmares

Shortcomings of the standard "take" on nightmares

Nightmares can be functional

Definition and diagnostic criteria for recurrent nightmares

Syndrome of recurring nightmares

The sharing of nightmares with others

2. Why do nightmares occur in children?

Sleep in childhood

Dreaming in childhood

Evolution of childhood

Cognitive and psychological growth of the child

Development of the sense of self in children

Impact of developmental milestones on nightmare propensity in children

3. Content of nightmares

Comparing nightmare content to ordinary dreams

Nightmare content scoring

Word count analyses of Barb Sanders' nightmares

Nightmares as compelling : the case of "precognitive nightmares"

People who experience extraordinary dreams must be extraordinary people

4. Nightmares in premodern societies

Nightmares as evidence of extraordinary powers in ancestral populations

Dreams in premodern societies

Cultural context of dreaming in premodern societies

Nightmare sharing in premodern groups

5. Biology of nightmares

Normal human sleep architecture

Sleep rebound effects and REM-NREM imbalances in production of nightmares

Special link between nightmares and REM sleep

Summary of REM properties and nightmares

Key role of the amygdale

Selected neuropharmacological agents can induce nightmares

Neuroanatomy and physiology of a nightmare

5. Personality and psychopathological correlates of nightmares

Nightmares are not reliably associated with loss of function

Disorders involving nightmares

Nightmares and psychopathology

7. Phenomenology of the nightmare

Basic visual features

Emotional atmosphere

Automaticity

Cognitive content elicits the emotional content

Creativity

"Compellingness"

Narrative form

Self-identity

Lack of metaphor

Self-reflectiveness

Mind reading

Summary of formal features of nightmares

8. Theoretical accounts of the nightmare

Facts that must serve as the basis for nightmare theory

Proposed functional theory of nightmares

Costly signaling theory (CST)

Freud's view of nightmares

Fisher's view of nightmares

Kramer's view of nightmares

Hartmann's view of nightmares

Nielsen and Levin's view of nightmares

Theory and treatment strategies

9. Nightmares and popular culture

Movies, nightmares, and spirit possession

Nightmare-related spirit possession is a universal phenomenon

Alien abduction

Books, nightmares, and spirit possession

10. Interpretation of the possession theme in nightmares

Selection of nightmares with spirit possession themes

Caveats in the interpretation of nightmares and standard explanations of the possession theme

Recurring patterns in the spirit-possession theme

11. Conflict theory and the nightmare

Mind is not a unity

Paradox of mind reading in dreams : the role of the "stranger"

Male strangers and aggression in dreams

REM-NREM dissociations in the dreaming mind

Dreaming and consciousness

Dream agents/characters can represent genomes within the individual

Effects of imprinted genes on physiologic systems implicated in growth

Effects of imprinted genes on functional brain systems implicated in sleep processes

Genomic imprinting and sleep-state biology

Genetic conflict and dream phenomenology

Concluding remarks

Appendix. Additional resources

References

Index.