title: Dreaming furiously? A sleep laboratory study on the dream content of people with Parkinson's disease and with or without rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) has been related to altered, action-filled, vivid, and aggressive dream content, but research comparing the possible differences in dreams of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with and without RBD is scarce. The dream content of PD patients with and without RBD was analyzed with specific focus on action-filledness, vividness, emotional valence, and threats.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 69 REM and NREM dream reports were collected in the sleep laboratory, 37 from nine PD patients with RBD and 32 from six PD patients without RBD. A content analysis of (1) action-filledness (actions and environmental events); (2) vividness (emotions and cognitive activity); (3) intensity of actions, events and emotions; (4) emotional valence, and (5) threatening events was performed on the transcripts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Altogether 563 dream elements expressing action-filledness and vividness were found. There were no significant between-group differences in the number or distribution of elements reflecting action-filledness or vividness, emotional valence or threats. In within-group analyses, PD patients with RBD had significantly more negative compared to positive dreams (p = 0.012) and compared to PD patients without RBD, a tendency to have more intense actions in their dreams (p = 0.066).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the results of this study, there are no major between-group differences in the action-filledness, vividness, or threat content of dreams of PD patients with and without RBD. However, within-group analyses revealed that dreams were more often negatively than positively toned in PD patients with RBD.
authors: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; School of Bioscience, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden. Electronic address: katval@utu.fi.
authors: Katja
authors: K
authors: Valli
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors: Birgit
authors: B
authors: Frauscher
authors: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors: Taina
authors: T
authors: Peltomaa
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors: Viola
authors: V
authors: Gschliesser
authors: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; School of Bioscience, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden.
authors: Antti
authors: A
authors: Revonsuo
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors: Birgit
authors: B
authors: Högl
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004325:Dreams / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D017286:Polysomnography; D020187:REM Sleep Behavior Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D057566:Self Report
keywords: Action-filledness; Dream content; Emotions; Parkinson's disease; REM sleep behavior disorder; Vividness