Polysomnographic Sleep in Idiopathic Nightmares: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Authors

Jiaxue Huang, Meiou Wang, Wenxin Bao, Wenqi Lyu, Yongming Wang, Shuyao Wu, Xiangdong Tang, Rong Ren, Ye Zhang

Published in

Nature and science of sleep. Volume 18. Pages 602539. Epub Sep 30, 2026.

Abstract

This study conducted a systematic evaluation of polysomnographic differences between individuals with nightmares and healthy controls.
Electronic searches of All EBM databases, EMBASE, Web of Science, and MEDLINE identified 14 eligible case-control studies; seven studies involving 112 individuals with nightmares and 112 controls were included in meta-analysis.
The meta-analysis of sleep macro-architecture (such as total sleep time, wake after sleep onset, and sleep stage percentages) revealed no significant differences between individuals with nightmares and healthy controls. Furthermore, the limited available data regarding sleep micro-architecture (cyclic alternating patterns (CAP) and power spectral analysis (PSA)) and autonomic measures (heart rate and heart rate variability) in studies not subjected to meta-analysis makes it difficult to draw confident conclusions.
Our meta-analysis revealed no significant differences in sleep macro-architecture. This finding highlights the importance of investigating sleep micro-architecture (such as CAP and PSA), which may be relevant to the physiology of nightmares. However, these findings should be interpreted cautiously and validated in future studies because of the limited available data.

PMID:
42830893
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 05 Oct 2026.

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