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IN ORDER to explore the proposed relationship between nightmare occurrence and schizotypy, 30 frequent-nightmare subjects (at least one occurrence per week) and 30 low-nightmare controls, all of whom were female college students, were compared on several converging measures of schizotypal signs and behaviors. Consistent with previous research, frequent nightmare subjects demonstrated greater deviance on psychometric scales of schizotypy, and reported significantly greater schizotypal symptomatology on a structured clinical interview, than controls did. In addition, nightmare subjects produced similar electrodermal habituation patterns to auditory orienting stimuli as those that have been documented in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The results suggest that nightmare experience may be a useful conjoint behavioral indicator for the early detection of schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology.
The search for objective behavioral criteria for the detection of individuals at heightened risk for schizophrenia, in conjunction with the increasing need to utilize multiple converging sources of data in general population samples with random ascertainment, has recently been stressed (Lenzenweger 1994; Lenzenweger and Korfine 1992) as a priority for future research in this area. While sustained attention deficits (Nuechterlein and Dawson 1984), smooth eye movement pursuits (Holzman, Solomon, Levin, and Waternaux 1984), and electrodermal anomalies (Bernstein et al. 1988) have received considerable attention in the experimental literature as possible biobehavioral indicators of schizophrenic liability, dreams, and particularly vivid nightmares, represent an area of perceptual-spatial functioning which has been largely overlooked as a possible source of invaluable data in this regard. While a review of the literature on dreaming and schizophrenia is beyond the scope of this paper (see Kramer and Roth 1979, for a review of this literature), evidence from numerous recent experimental studies and clinical reports suggests that heightened nightmare experience may be associated with increased psychopathology, with a specific focus on schizotypal phenomena (Detre and Jarecki 1971; Fennig, Salganik, and Chayat 1992; Hartmann, Russ, Oldfield, Sivan, and Cooper 1987; Kales et al. 1980; Levin and Stiritz 1998; Mack 1970).
Nightmares are primarily Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage dream products, and are usually marked by an intensified feeling of dread or terror, in which the dreamer experiences a paralysis of body movement, a sense of imminent danger, and a loss of control (Kales et al. 1980). The similarities between the severe nightmare attack and an acute psychotic episode...