This work is aimed to carry out a theoretical review of sleep and dreams of alcoholics according to cognitive-behavioral therapy, and focusing on cognitive and neuroligical aspects. Considering that this approach is more indicated to chemical dependency, dreams, which are frequently used in Psychoanalytic Therapy, have to be studied under a cognitive-behavioral approach, so they could be used in clinics with these patients. The alterations in sleep of alcoholics, for example, could be taken as an alert about the risk of relapse, which indicate that sleep evaluation can not be disregarded by professionals, during the treatment of these patients. The reporting of dreams, by itself, can be a therapeutic instrument, very valuable at offering clues in respect of how much cravings are present in those who are trying to keep clean. If the professionals are successful about early identification of a risk situation as a craving, they could be more effective about the prevention of relapse. We concluded about the necessity of new researches on dreams according to this theoretical approach, as well as to evaluate their application in the chemical dependency field.
Alcohol; sleep; dream; Cognitive-Behavioral therapy