Brief Communication Nightmares and Serum Cholesterol Level: A Preliminary Report

There is a burgeoning focus on the relation between serum cholesterol levels and psychiatric disorders, including depression and other anxiety disorders (1,2). Information about the relation between serum lipid levels and sleep disorders is relatively limited in the psychiatric literature. In a previous study, we found that serum cholesterol level was higher in patients with recurrent panic attacks, compared with panic disorder patients without sleep panic and with healthy subjects (3). In a recent study, we also examined the relation between serum lipid concentrations in subjects with sleeprelated violent behaviours (4). Low serum cholesterol level was associated with violent behaviour during sleep.