Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany. Michael.Schredl@zi-mannheim.de
The present study investigated the correlations among snoring, breathing pauses during sleep, and nightmare frequency in a sample of 444 healthy individuals. Breathing pauses, but not snoring, were associated with heightened nightmare frequency. Whereas the hypothesis that shortage of oxygen directly causes nightmares is not supported by the literature, novel internal stimuli might affect dream content.