Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic Drugs
Over the past 60 years, the impact of psychotropic drugs on dream recall and content has been scarcely explored. A review of the few existing experimental results on the topic leads us to the following conclusions. For antidepressant drugs, in the great majority, they reduce dream recall frequency (...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neurology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.507495/full |
| _version_ | 1819173121240858624 |
|---|---|
| author | Alain Nicolas Perrine M. Ruby |
| author_facet | Alain Nicolas Perrine M. Ruby |
| author_sort | Alain Nicolas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Over the past 60 years, the impact of psychotropic drugs on dream recall and content has been scarcely explored. A review of the few existing experimental results on the topic leads us to the following conclusions. For antidepressant drugs, in the great majority, they reduce dream recall frequency (DRF), and the improvement of depressive symptoms is associated with an increase of positive emotion in dream content. For sedative psychotropic drugs, their improvement of sleep quality is associated with a reduction of DRF, but the effect on dream content is less clear. Few occurrences of nightmare frequency increase have been reported, with intake of molecules disturbing sleep or with the withdrawal of some psychotropic drugs. Importantly, the impact of psychotropic drugs on rapid eye movement (REM) sleep does not explain DRF modulations. The reduction of intra-sleep awakenings seems to be the parameter explaining best the modulation of DRF by psychotropic drugs. Indeed, molecules that improve sleep continuity by reducing intra-sleep awakenings also reduce the frequency of dream recall, which is coherent with the “arousal-retrieval model” stating that nighttime awakenings enable dreams to be encoded into long-term memory and therefore facilitate dream recall. DRF is nonetheless influenced by several other factors (e.g., interest in dreams, the method of awakening, and personality traits), which may explain a large part of the variability of results observed and cited in this article. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T20:18:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d734a9d0f5904216ba1ebd5b591dd6b3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-2295 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T20:18:02Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neurology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d734a9d0f5904216ba1ebd5b591dd6b32022-12-21T18:13:56ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952020-11-011110.3389/fneur.2020.507495507495Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic DrugsAlain NicolasPerrine M. RubyOver the past 60 years, the impact of psychotropic drugs on dream recall and content has been scarcely explored. A review of the few existing experimental results on the topic leads us to the following conclusions. For antidepressant drugs, in the great majority, they reduce dream recall frequency (DRF), and the improvement of depressive symptoms is associated with an increase of positive emotion in dream content. For sedative psychotropic drugs, their improvement of sleep quality is associated with a reduction of DRF, but the effect on dream content is less clear. Few occurrences of nightmare frequency increase have been reported, with intake of molecules disturbing sleep or with the withdrawal of some psychotropic drugs. Importantly, the impact of psychotropic drugs on rapid eye movement (REM) sleep does not explain DRF modulations. The reduction of intra-sleep awakenings seems to be the parameter explaining best the modulation of DRF by psychotropic drugs. Indeed, molecules that improve sleep continuity by reducing intra-sleep awakenings also reduce the frequency of dream recall, which is coherent with the “arousal-retrieval model” stating that nighttime awakenings enable dreams to be encoded into long-term memory and therefore facilitate dream recall. DRF is nonetheless influenced by several other factors (e.g., interest in dreams, the method of awakening, and personality traits), which may explain a large part of the variability of results observed and cited in this article.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.507495/fullsleepdream recall frequencydream contentantidepressantantipsychoticanxiolytic |
| spellingShingle | Alain Nicolas Perrine M. Ruby Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic Drugs Frontiers in Neurology sleep dream recall frequency dream content antidepressant antipsychotic anxiolytic |
| title | Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic Drugs |
| title_full | Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic Drugs |
| title_fullStr | Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic Drugs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic Drugs |
| title_short | Dreams, Sleep, and Psychotropic Drugs |
| title_sort | dreams sleep and psychotropic drugs |
| topic | sleep dream recall frequency dream content antidepressant antipsychotic anxiolytic |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.507495/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alainnicolas dreamssleepandpsychotropicdrugs AT perrinemruby dreamssleepandpsychotropicdrugs |