Dream Imagery and Rapid Eye Movement

Abstract

The process of dream generation is closely related with information-processing during rapid eye movement sleep. The sleep polysomnography experiment confirmed that frequent dream recallers have higher rapid eye movement density and higher anxiety level of dream content than infrequent dream recallers. Also, when the dream imagery is fearsome and vivid, the dream becomes a nightmare. Clinically defined nightmares have extremely high REM frequency and sudden arousal from sleep. In the guideline of nightmare treatment of American Academy of Sleep Medicine（2010） , many of cognitive behavioral therapies（CBT） , including image rehearsal therapy, image exposure and EMDR（eye  movement desensitization and reprocessing）, are recommended as non-pharmacological therapies. In this study, we are reporting the case pertaining to how the imagery of dreams changes and if symptoms disappear when we give short-term cognitive behavioral therapy to post-traumatic nightmares.