ArticlePsychiatry and clinical neurosciences2026
Physiological markers of Trauma-related nightmares among military personnel suffering from PTSD: A multicenter home-recording study.
Article in Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04581850 (Assessment of Sleep Disturbance as a Biomarker of Disease Activity in a Military Population With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), which is not on this map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Assessment of Sleep Disturbance as a Biomarker of Disease Activity in a Military Population With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
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9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimDespite being one of the most disabling symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-disrupting sleep continuity, reinforcing hyperarousal, and worsening psychiatric comorbidity-the physiological signature of Trauma-related nightmares (TRNs) under naturalistic sleep conditions remains poorly characterized.
methodsWe used home-based, multi-sensor devices from the SOMMEPT cohort to assess whether TRNs display distinct autonomic dynamics before and after awakening. TRN awakenings were self-marked with the wristband button and validated through electroencephalography (EEG) inspection by a psychiatrist and a sleep physician. Each TRN event (N = 412) was matched 1:1 to three control conditions: spontaneous awakenings in 60 healthy military participants, awakenings in 34 military PTSD patients without TRNs, and non-nightmare awakenings from 74 military PTSD patients with TRNs. Pre-awakening autonomic activity was analyzed over 10 min, and post-awakening reactivity over a 2-min window using nonparametric statistics with cluster-based permutation correction.
resultsTRNs were associated with heightened sudomotor activity and reduced vagal heart rate variability compared with spontaneous awakenings in healthy controls; differences were weaker versus PTSD patients without TRNs or non-TRN awakenings. Phasic Electrodermal activity (EDA) showed earlier peaks and prolonged recovery, while movement was lower before TRN-related awakenings. Post-awakening, TRNs elicited an abrupt surge: heart rate accelerated within ~40 s and normalized by ~2 min; tonic EDA remained elevated, phasic EDA bursts were longer, slower to recover, and motor activity rose during the first ~80 s.
conclusionsTRNs display a distinctive autonomic pattern with pre-awakening sudomotor buildup and post-awakening cardiovascular-electrodermal surges, supporting biomarker-based detection and targeted intervention.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04581850.
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