Sleep: weekly nightmares plague Australian uni students
29 October 2010
A survey of Australian students has found a surprisingly high number of them report having weekly nightmares.
The survey of 440 Victorian students, aged between 18 and 34 years, showed 16 per cent had weekly nightmares.
The authors, from Victoria University in Melbourne, told the annual conference of the Australasian Sleep Association (21-23 October 2010) that this was significantly higher than previously reported frequencies in similar population samples.
Of the participants, 89 per cent reported experiencing nightmares, with 31 per cent reporting having at least one nightmare in the previous month.
Almost half of the weekly and monthly nightmares were related to a traumatic experience.
“These findings suggest that both trauma-related and non-trauma-related nightmares are more frequent than previously believed and that prevalence and treatment studies are warranted”, the authors concluded.
Last Reviewed: 29 October 2010
- Elzo F, Kennedy G. Nightmare frequency in a sample of Australian university students (abstract). Abstracts of the Australasian Sleep Association and Australasian Sleep Technologists Association 22nd Annual Scientific Meeting; Christchurch, NZ; 21-23 Oct 2010. Sleep and Biological Rhythms 2010; 8 Suppl s1: A44. doi:10.1111/j.1479-8425.2010.00457_1.x http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sbr.2010.8.issue-s1/issuetoc (accessed 29 Oct 2010).
