Sensory modalities during dreams in migraine: Case-control study using a daily questionnaire.

The migrainous brain is known to have a series of peculiarity in terms of metabolism, performances, emotions, and pain perception. This particularity seems to involve also the oneiric activity. Aimed to increase our knowledge about this topic, the present study tries to investigate migraineurs’ dreams by both an analytic qualitative and a semiquantitative perspectives. With an ad hoc questionnaire compiled each day at the awakening, we explored the frequency of dreams, the involved sensory system (visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustative), and the fragmentation of sleep. We found a higher frequency of dreams among migraineurs, partially linked to sleep discontinuation. The most relevant qualitative difference that emerged was the absolute higher frequency of gustative and olfactory dreams among migraineurs. All these peculiar characteristics were typical of the patients without aura, whereas the subgroup with aura did not differ from controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Dreaming - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research