Dreaming and Reality in Narcolepsy A MAJORITY OF PATIENTS WITH NARCOLEPSY HAVE VIVID DREAMS, OFTEN MISTAKING THEM FOR REALITY

In a collaborative study between academic centers in Boston and Leiden, the Netherlands (Wamsley et al. 2014), researchers studied dream delusions in 46 people with narcolepsy and cataplexy, comparing them with age-matched healthy controls (n = 41). The average age of the patients was 34.2 ± 10.9 years (SD), and 59 percent were female. A structured telephone interview was utilized to assess dream recall. Study participants were asked, “Have you ever had the experience of being unsure whether something was real or if it was from a dream?” The dream events were categorized as delusional episodes if, when fully awake, the subject was uncertain if a memory was dreamed or real or was convinced that a memory was real but later recognized that it was a dream. To define an episode as delusional, the dream had to persist into the waking state.