In this study the chronic traumatic nightmares of men who had been in
combat were found to differ from the lifelong nightmares of veterans with
no combat experience in that they tended to occur earlier in the sleep
cycle, were more likely to be replicas of actual events, and were more
commonly accompanied by gross body movements. Traumatic nightmares may
arise out of varying stages of sleep and are not confined to REM sleep
alone. The group with lifelong nightmares showed evidence of thought
disorder on the Rorschach. The men with posttraumatic stress disorder had
failed to psychologically integrate their traumatic experiences and used
dissociation as a way of dealing with strong affects.
Abstract Teaser