Nightmares matter: rethinking suicide risk assessment and intervention in depression
Julia Maruani, Pierre A Geoffroy · 2026
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Description
Maruani and Geoffroy argued in 2026 that nightmares deserve a central place in suicide risk assessment for people with depression. Nightmares, vividly recalled dreams of threat, wreck sleep and the following day, and they are strikingly common in major depression, reaching over 90 percent in some severe groups. Their themes in depression often circle despair, loss, and death.
Nightmares track with stronger depression and anxiety, more broken sleep, and a markedly higher risk of suicidal thoughts and acts, ranking among the strongest sleep-related predictors of attempts. Changes in dream content, toward repeated nightmares and even suicidal dream scenes, often appear before a crisis, in about four of five patients in one account. Adolescents may be especially exposed, given their emotional intensity and unsettled sleep rhythms. The authors urge clinicians to ask about nightmares directly and to treat them as a working target, not a side note.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Julia Maruani, Pierre A Geoffroy |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 10 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |