VI. Dream Studies in Enuresis Research

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Abstract
Enuresis as a sleep disorder was studied in over two hundred enuretics and their matched controls. Enuresis as a sleep disorder is reflected by the fact that enuretics are more likely to have past and family histories of sleepwalking, past histories of nocturia, electroencephalographic abnormalities similar in pattern to a person going to sleep. The enuretic notes that posture variations and time of sleeping affected his likelihood of being enuretic. A new methodology permitted more elaborate investigation of enuresis in over 60 nights of study. It was found that dreaming and wetting do not occur together. At the moment of bedwetting the subject is usually deeply asleep both by electroencephalographic and clinical observation. The dreams of the enuretic child are aggressive and violent. The enuretic adult has such hostile dreams on nights when he does not wet. When he wets, his dreams are likely to be predominantly dependent in nature. A pattern emerges in which the bedwetting usually precedes dreaming on any night and that the difference in time between initial enuresis and initial dreaming, in both adults and children, is about 2¼ hours. Current research on sleep disorders is attempting to understand more of both physiological and psychological aspects. One methodology employed is to investigate possible biochemical associations during sleep, dreams and overt sleep disorders. This methodology involves withdrawing blood from a sleeping subject without wakening him up, plus the psychiatric scouting of his dream content.

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