Abstract

Justin Havens

Nightmares are a hallmark symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and can affect up to 90% of trauma-exposed adults. They tend to be underreported, can be resistant to traditional trauma psychotherapy and are linked to serious mental illness and higher risk of suicide. Existing treatments (e.g. Exposure and Image Rehearsal Therapy) have been shown to be efficacious with some populations but require multiple sessions and can only be applied to repetitive nightmares.

The focus of this research was an alternative approach for treating traumatic nightmares called Planned Dream Interventions® (PDI), conceived and developed by a US Military Psychologist, but which had not been empirically evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the PDI approach for use with UK Armed Forces (UKAF) veterans to assess: its safety and acceptability; improvement in sleep; reduction in nightmares and associated sleep disturbance and trauma symptoms, and any potential benefits over existing treatments approaches.