| Tables and figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Approach to the study of nightmares -- Shortcomings of the standard "take" on nightmares -- Nightmares can be functional -- Definition and diagnostic criteria for recurrent nightmares -- Syndrome of recurring nightmares -- The sharing of nightmares with others -- 2. Why do nightmares occur in children? -- Sleep in childhood -- Dreaming in childhood -- Evolution of childhood -- Cognitive and psychological growth of the child -- Development of the sense of self in children -- Impact of developmental milestones on nightmare propensity in children -- 3. Content of nightmares -- Comparing nightmare content to ordinary dreams -- Nightmare content scoring -- Word count analyses of Barb Sanders' nightmares -- Nightmares as compelling : the case of "precognitive nightmares" -- People who experience extraordinary dreams must be extraordinary people -- 4. Nightmares in premodern societies -- Nightmares as evidence of extraordinary powers in ancestral populations -- Dreams in premodern societies -- Cultural context of dreaming in premodern societies -- Nightmare sharing in premodern groups -- 5. Biology of nightmares -- Normal human sleep architecture -- Sleep rebound effects and REM-NREM imbalances in production of nightmares -- Special link between nightmares and REM sleep -- Summary of REM properties and nightmares -- Key role of the amygdale -- Selected neuropharmacological agents can induce nightmares -- Neuroanatomy and physiology of a nightmare -- 5. Personality and psychopathological correlates of nightmares -- Nightmares are not reliably associated with loss of function -- Disorders involving nightmares -- Nightmares and psychopathology -- 7. Phenomenology of the nightmare -- Basic visual features -- Emotional atmosphere -- Automaticity -- Cognitive content elicits the emotional content -- Creativity -- "Compellingness" -- Narrative form -- Self-identity -- Lack of metaphor -- Self-reflectiveness -- Mind reading -- Summary of formal features of nightmares -- 8. Theoretical accounts of the nightmare -- Facts that must serve as the basis for nightmare theory -- Proposed functional theory of nightmares -- Costly signaling theory (CST) -- Freud's view of nightmares -- Fisher's view of nightmares -- Kramer's view of nightmares -- Hartmann's view of nightmares -- Nielsen and Levin's view of nightmares -- Theory and treatment strategies -- 9. Nightmares and popular culture -- Movies, nightmares, and spirit possession -- Nightmare-related spirit possession is a universal phenomenon -- Alien abduction -- Books, nightmares, and spirit possession -- 10. Interpretation of the possession theme in nightmares -- Selection of nightmares with spirit possession themes -- Caveats in the interpretation of nightmares and standard explanations of the possession theme -- Recurring patterns in the spirit-possession theme -- 11. Conflict theory and the nightmare -- Mind is not a unity -- Paradox of mind reading in dreams : the role of the "stranger" -- Male strangers and aggression in dreams -- REM-NREM dissociations in the dreaming mind -- Dreaming and consciousness -- Dream agents/characters can represent genomes within the individual -- Effects of imprinted genes on physiologic systems implicated in growth -- Effects of imprinted genes on functional brain systems implicated in sleep processes -- Genomic imprinting and sleep-state biology -- Genetic conflict and dream phenomenology -- Concluding remarks -- Appendix. Additional resources -- References -- Index. |
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