title: Longitudinal study of nightmares in children: stability and effect of emotional symptoms.
abstract: Nightmares are defined as dreams with strong negative emotions which awaken the dreamer and are common during childhood: cross-sectional data shows the highest prevalence rates between the ages of five and ten. The present longitudinal study was designed to study the stability of nightmares over the course of 2 years. Sleep questionnaires and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires were completed by 851 10-years-old children and their parents, separately. In the total sample, nightmares occurred often in 2.5% (parental estimates) to 3.5% (self estimates of the children). The findings indicate that nightmare stability is considerably high, i.e., nightmare occurrence was predicted by the prevalence the year before (in addition to the concurrent amount of emotional symptoms). Children with 'chronic' nightmares showed more psychopathological symptoms. It would be interesting to follow-up these children in order to investigate whether childhood nightmares are also predictive for adult psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: Sleep Laboratory, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany. Michael.Schredl@zi-mannheim.de
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schredl
authors.forename: Leonie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fricke-Oerkermann
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mitschke
authors.forename: Alfred
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wiater
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lehmkuhl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004325:Dreams / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012008:Recurrence; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires