Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:1147-1150
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
REM sleep and adaptation of psychiatric patients: an application of sleep studies
R Greenberg and CA Pearlman Jr
The authors used sleep laboratory data to predict responses to psychiatric
treatment. The predictions were based on the assumptions that REM latency
reflects the need for dreaming and therefore the need for adaptation and
that REM time reflects the capacity for the adaptive work associated with
REM sleep. Dream recall and dream content were considered indicators of
psychological mindedness and the patient's current conflicts. With this
material, statistically significant predictions of such outcomes as good
response to psychotherapy, elopement, or need for medication were made. The
results of this study support the hypothesis that REM sleep is involved in
adaptation.
