Planned Dream Interventions: A Pragmatic Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate a Psychological Treatment for Traumatic Nightmares in UK Military Veterans

Abstract

Nightmares are a hallmark symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), affecting an estimated 90% of trauma-exposed adults. This article reports on a pragmatic randomized control trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an enhanced treatment approach called Planned Dream Interventions (PDI) compared with a standard sleep hygiene intervention. Ninety-two U.K. Armed Forces veterans completed self-report measures (sleep quality, nightmares, and PTSD) pre- and 1-month post-session. Large between group effect sizes (average d = 1.1) were noted across all measures. Overall, findings suggest that PDI is a safe, resource efficient and effective intervention, though further validation is required.

Keywords:

• Traumatic nightmares
• sleep disturbance
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• veterans
• nightmare rescripting
• image rehearsal therapy (IRT)
• planned dream interventions (PDI)

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Beverley Dexter.

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest in the present study for any of the authors. This research received no specific grant from any commercial or charitable organization.