Incidence of Dreaming and Subjective Quality of General Anesthesia With and Without Standardized Stress Relaxation and Dream Suggestion by the Anesthesiologist: A Prospective Interventional Randomized Trial Using an Adaptive Design

Objective was to investigate, if incidence of dreaming is increased, when positive suggestion of dreams is applied by an anesthesiologist preoperatively. Forty patients with standard care (Controls, CON) and 40 patients with dream suggestion (SUGG) before maxillofacial surgery were included in the study (33 female and 47 male patients). One day before surgery, patients with SUGG were requested to imagine a pleasant dream (dreamfilm) for anesthesia. Immediately before anesthesia, these patients were requested to imagine their dreams. After anesthesia, all patients were interviewed about dreaming. Incidence of dreaming was higher in patients with SUGG (23 vs. 12, p = .024). However, patient's satisfaction with anesthesia was not higher in SUGG than in CON, 10 (5 to 10) versus 10 (5 to 10), p = .26; Numerical Rating Scale 0-10, 0 = none, 10 = most.