The relationship of nightmare frequency to nightmare suffering with implications for treatment and research.

The present research challenges the assumption that nightmare suffering can be operationally defined as nightmare frequency. Four groups of undergraduate students, for a total sample of 540 (358 women, 165 men, 17 undeclared), estimated their nightmare frequency in the prior year and completed a questionnaire assessing the amount of waking distress associated with their nightmares (nightmare distress). This questionnaire included an item on which they indicated their interest in therapy for nightmares. While nightmare frequency was significantly correlated with nightmare distress and interest in therapy, the correlations were sufficiently modest to suggest that these two variables should be differentiated both in theoretical/empirical studies of nightmares and in approaches to treatment with nightmares.