The present study compares the sleep and dreams of three groups of sub
jects: I) Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) a
nd major depression, 2) veterans with depression alone, and 3) veteran
s with neither PTSD nor depression (i.e., normal controls), Sleep reco
rdings indicate only one significant difference between the PTSD/depre
ssed and depressed alone groups: sleep latency was prolonged in the de
pressed alone patients compared with the other two groups, The two pat
ient groups differed from controls in the manner already reported for
depressed patients (decreased REM latency, increased REM density, redu
ced total sleep time, reduced sleep efficiency), with some of the diff
erences significant only at the trend level. Dreams were obtained from
REM awakenings. Dream recall rare and report length did not differ be
tween groups, Mean anxiety level in dreams was less than 1 (mild) for
all three groups, with major depression patients scoring significantly
higher than controls. Dreams of PTSD/depressed patients were signific
antly less likely to be set in the present than dreams of the other tw
o groups.