University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2021 Apr;25(7):3054-3065. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202104_25559.
The aim of this study was to review the available findings on sex-related differences for sleep disorders, dreams and nightmares.
We explored the PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar electronic databases, with regards to the searching terms 'sleep', 'dreams', and 'nightmares' associated with 'sex' and/or 'gender'. Moreover, other supplementary terms for the searching strategy were 'chronobiology', and 'circadian rhythm'. Due to the relative paucity of studies including separate analysis by sex, and especially to their wide heterogeneity, we decided to proceed with a narrative review, highlighting the sex-related findings of each topic into apposite boxes.
On one hand, sleep disorders seem to be more frequent in women. On the other hand, sex-related differences exist for either dreams or nightmares. As for the former, differences make reference to dream content (men: physical aggression, women family themes), self-reported perspective (men dream in third person, women in first person), dream sharing (more frequent in women), lucid dreaming (women more realistic, men more controlled), and daydreaming (young men more frequently have sexual themes). Nightmares are more frequent in women too, and they are often associated with sleep disorders and even with psychiatric disorders, such as depression and/or anxiety. In women, a strong association has been shown between nightmares and evening circadian preference.
For many years, and for many reasons, laboratory experiments have been conducted mainly, if not exclusively, on male animals. Thus, a novel effort towards a new governance of scientific and research activities with a gender-specific perspective has been claimed for all areas of medicine, and more research on sex-differences is strongly needed also on this topic.
本研究旨在综述与睡眠障碍、梦境和噩梦相关的性别差异的现有研究结果。
我们检索了 PubMed、EMBASE 和 Google Scholar 电子数据库，检索词包括“睡眠”“梦境”和“噩梦”，并与“性别”和/或“性别”相关联。此外，还使用了其他与搜索策略相关的补充术语，如“时间生物学”和“昼夜节律”。由于包括按性别进行单独分析的研究相对较少，而且它们的异质性很大，我们决定采用叙述性综述的方法，将每个主题的性别相关发现突出显示在相应的框中。
一方面，睡眠障碍在女性中似乎更为常见。另一方面，梦境和噩梦也存在性别差异。在前者方面，差异涉及梦的内容（男性：身体攻击，女性：家庭主题）、自我报告的视角（男性以第三人称做梦，女性以第一人称做梦）、梦的分享（女性更频繁）、清醒梦（女性更现实，男性更可控）和白日梦（年轻男性更频繁地有性主题）。女性也更容易做噩梦，而且它们经常与睡眠障碍甚至与抑郁和/或焦虑等精神障碍相关。在女性中，已经显示出强烈的关联性，即噩梦与夜间昼夜节律偏好有关。
多年来，出于多种原因，实验室实验主要是（如果不是完全的话）在雄性动物身上进行。因此，人们呼吁在医学的所有领域都采用基于性别的新方法来管理科学和研究活动，并且在这一主题上也需要更多的性别差异研究。
