Dreams and dementia: a laboratory exploration of dream recall and dream content in chronic brain syndrome patients.

Seventeen (seven mild and ten severe) chronic brain syndrome patients were testes in the sleep laboratory for dream recall and content. The mildly organic patients had 57 per cent recall while the severely organic patients had 35 per cent recall. We also studied four aged severely organic patients. These patients showed a recall rate of 8 per cent. The difference between the recall rates in mildly and severely organic middle-aged patients was not statistically significant. The difference between the recall rates of the aged severely organic patients and either or both of the middle-aged groups was statistically significant (p smaller than .001). In addition, we found dream content differences between the mildly and severely organic middle-aged groups and between the combined group and normal young men.