Researchers have reported that dreams in patients with schizophrenia tend to be simpler and less elaborate (2, 8), less emotionally sophisticated and self-involved (2, 9), more bizarre (10–12), and more negative, violent, and unfriendly (9, 11, 13) compared to dreams of healthy individuals.
Dreams of individuals with schizophrenia have been characterized as anxious, hostile, and grandiose, containing themes of threat and foreboding [54].
NIGHTMARES AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
In the context of schizophrenia, approximately 10% of persons with this diagnosis have been reported to experience frequent nightmares[12]. Some reports place the prevalence from somewhat to substantially higher in schizophrenia[13].
Nightmares may be a common clinical characteristic for people experiencing psychotic symptoms. Further, the distress associated with them is associated with worse daytime symptoms.
Voices may seem angry or urgent and often make demands on the hallucinating person. Visual hallucinations involve seeing objects, people, lights, or patterns that are not actually present. Visualizing dead loved ones, friends, or other people they knew can be particularly distressing.
Unfortunately, most people with schizophrenia are unaware that their symptoms are warning signs of a mental disorder. Their lives may be unraveling, yet they may believe that their experiences are normal. Or they may feel that they're blessed or cursed with special insights that others can't see.
Some schizophrenia symptoms that a person might experience include illogical thoughts, hallucinations, delusions, and unusual movements.
Researchers have reported that dreams in patients with schizophrenia tend to be simpler and less elaborate (2, 8), less emotionally sophisticated and self-involved (2, 9), more bizarre (10–12), and more negative, violent, and unfriendly (9, 11, 13) compared to dreams of healthy individuals.
Researchers of one study found that intentionally attempting to induce lucid dreaming is associated with depression, dissociation, obsessive compulsive symptoms, and symptoms that are characteristic of schizophrenia.
Indeed, schizophrenia patients that qualified as lucid dreamers showed a tendency to be more, not less symptomatic than non-lucid dreamers in the same group.
People with schizophrenia can have trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy, expressing and managing normal emotions and making decisions. Thought processes may also be disorganized and the motivation to engage in life's activities may be blunted.
Most notably, individuals who experience maladaptive daydreaming know that their daydreams are not real, while those with disorders like schizophrenia have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy.
The most common hallucination is hearing voices. Hallucinations are very real to the person experiencing them, even though people around them cannot hear the voices or experience the sensations.
Symptoms may include: Delusions. These are false beliefs that are not based in reality. For example, you think that you're being harmed or harassed; certain gestures or comments are directed at you; you have exceptional ability or fame; another person is in love with you; or a major catastrophe is about to occur.
Oneirophrenia is often described as a dream-like state that can lead to hallucinations and confusion. Feelings and emotions are often disturbed but information from the senses is left intact separating it from true schizophrenia.
Sleep deprivation psychosis refers to experiencing an altered perception of reality caused by a prolonged lack of sleep. Psychosis, in general, refers to an episode in which your brain perceives reality differently than other people in the same situation.
Pareidolia is the perception of faces in ambiguous visual stimuli, such as clouds, rock formations, or flocks of birds, and is thus a type of visual illusion (35). Pareidolia occurs when an indistinct and often randomly formed stimulus is interpreted as being definite and meaningful.
Hearing voices or other sounds is the most common hallucination.
Though disturbed sleep isn't included in the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, it is still a significant problem that up to 80% of people with the condition experience. People with schizophrenia may have various sleep problems, including insomnia, excessive sleepiness, and trouble with consistent sleep routines.
People with schizophrenia suffer a wide range of social cognitive deficits, including abnormalities in eye gaze perception. For instance, patients have shown an increased bias to misjudge averted gaze as being directed toward them.
People with paranoid schizophrenia have an altered perception of reality. They may see or hear things that don't exist, speak in confusing ways, believe that others are trying to harm them, or feel like they're being constantly watched.
People with schizophrenia experience difficulties in remembering their past and envisioning their future. However, while alterations of event representation are well documented, little is known about how personal events are located and ordered in time.