Dream Experiences During Intensive Care Unit Stay: Occurrence, Content, Vividness and Associated Factors.

The study was exploratory and had no formal sample size calculation, so it was not powered to find smaller differences. Patients with more dream experiences may have been more likely to take part, and only patients who met ICU aftercare criteria, especially longer stays or COVID-19, were included. The questionnaire was answered a median of 273 days after discharge, and participants were asked to describe their most notable dream, which may bias recall toward vivid or extreme experiences. Only 17 participants reported no dream experiences, so comparisons between those with and without dream experiences were small. Several outcomes had missing data: sleep quality was available for 56 participants, nurse-recorded night sleep for 58, pain scores for 77, and ICDSC delirium scores for 68. Interviews were not recorded; investigators took notes, which may have limited depth and consistency of qualitative descriptions. Clinical variables were averaged over the whole ICU admission, so day-to-day links between medication, delirium, sleep and dreams cannot be established. Patients with multiple admissions were combined or only the latest admission used, and ICU/IMCU transfers were treated as one admission, which may blur timing of experiences.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by LUMC.

Do not conclude that ICU staff caused these dreams or that vivid dreams prove ongoing delirium. The study asked former patients about memorable experiences a median of 273 days after discharge, and many patients could not tell dreams apart from perceptual disturbances.