When night falls fast: Sleep and suicidal behavior among adolescents and young adults

Sleep disturbances have been linked to suicidal ideation and behaviors in adolescents. Specifically, insomnia and nightmares are associated with current suicide risk and predict future ideation. Associations between hypersomnia, sleep apnea, and suicide remain inconclusive. Potential biological mechanisms underlying these relationships include executive functioning deficits and hyperarousal. Related psychological factors may include thwarted belongingness, perceived […]

Examining sleep disturbance components as near-term predictors of suicide ideation in daily life

Suicide ideation emerges and fluctuates over short timeframes (minutes, hours, days); however, near-term predictors of such fluctuations have not been well-elucidated. Sleep disturbance is a distal suicide risk factor, but less work has examined whether daily sleep disturbance predicts near-term changes in suicide ideation. We examined subjective sleep disturbance components as predictors of passive and […]

Nightmares in borderline personality disorder: Narrative review

BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients commonly suffer from nightmares. Still, the prevalence of this issue does not match the little clinical attention it usually receives. Nightmares impact sleep and daily functioning and may play a role in BPD symptomatology, including suicidality. Since BPD has been linked with high rates of suicide, the potential connection […]

Investigating the psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship between nightmares, suicide and self-harm

Evidence suggests that nightmares increase the risk of suicide and self-harm, independently of insomnia, PTSD, anxiety and depression. A better understanding of this relationship is vital for the development of effective suicide and self-harm interventions. A systematic review of the research investigating the mechanisms underlying the nightmare and suicide/self-harm relationship was therefore conducted. Findings from […]

The relationship between nightmares, depression and suicide

Objective Previous studies investigating the association between nightmares and suicide have yielded different results. We aimed to investigate whether nightmares, directly or indirectly, influence the incidence of suicide. Methods We used a prospective cohort study, based on 40,902 participants with a mean follow-up duration of 19.0 years. Cox proportional hazards models with attained age as […]

Borderline personality disorder traits and suicide risk: The mediating role of insomnia and nightmares

Background : Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with high rates of suicide risk and problems related to sleep, including insomnia and nightmares. The purpose of the current study was to assess the potential indirect effect of BPD traits on suicide risk through both/either insomnia and nightmares. Methods : Participants (N = 281) were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to […]

Differentiating single and multiple suicide attempters: What nightmares can tell us that other predictors cannot

Study Objectives Although nightmares have been associated with suicidal behavior beyond well-known risk factors, the association between nightmares and multiple suicide attempts remains largely unexplored. This study addressed this gap in the literature by examining whether nightmares differentiated between individuals who reported single versus multiple suicide attempts. The individual contributions of nightmare frequency, distress/severity, and […]

Insomnia symptoms, nightmares, and suicidal ideation in a college student sample

Study Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether insomnia symptoms and nightmares are related to suicidal ideation independent of one another and independent of the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Design: The study consisted of questionnaires examining insomnia symptoms and nightmares, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. […]

Explaining the relation between nightmares and suicide

For most of us, avoiding sleep is a radical idea. Sleep is a much needed respite that we yearn for all day. However, we know many nightmare sufferers resist sleep in the often futile attempt to avoid having a nightmare.1 Given that nightmares are that disturbing to the nightmare sufferer, it should not be surprising that […]

Exploring thematic nightmare content and associated self-harm risk

Nightmares have been shown to be robust predictors of self-harm risk, beyond depressive symptoms and hopelessness at times. However, few studies have investigated associations between nightmare content and increased self-harm risk. This study explored associations of thematic nightmare content with history of self-harm, and risk of self-harm phenomena the morning following a nightmare. A mixed-method […]

Nightmares and suicide risk in psychiatric patients: The roles of hopelessness and male depressive symptoms.

Although nightmares have been shown to increase the risk for suicide, less is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. In order to address this gap and guided by the hopelessness theory of suicide risk, we examined hopelessness and male depressive symptoms as risk factors for suicide while considering the frequency of and impairment due […]

What role do nightmares play in suicide? A brief exploration.

Highlights • Nightmares have been shown to be independently associated with suicidal behavior. Nightmares respond well to both psychological and pharmacological treatments. Emerging literature suggests that treating nightmares may reduce suicide risk. Nightmares should be considered in judging suicide risk.

Insomnia symptoms, nightmares, and suicide risk: duration of sleep disturbance matters.

Journal held in CSP Library.