Italy and Belgium have been among the first western countries to face the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency, imposing a total lockdown over the entire national territories.These limitations have proven effective in slowing down the spread of the infection. However, the benefits obtained in public health have come with huge costs in terms of social, economic, and psychological well-being. In the current study, we aimed at investigating how the period of home confinement affected self-reported sleep characteristics in Italians and Belgians, with special regard to sleep timing and subjective quality. Using an online survey we collected data from 2272 participants, 1622 Italians (Mage=34.1±13.6 years, 1171 F), and 650 Belgian (Mage=43.0±16.8 years, 509 F). Participants reported their sleep pattern (e.g., bedtime, risetime) and perceived sleep quality during and, retrospectively, before the lockdown. During the lockdown, sleep timing was significantly delayed, time spent in bed increased, and sleep quality was markedly impaired in both Italians and Belgians. The most vulnerable individualsappeared to be women, subjects experiencing a more negative mood, and those perceiving the pandemic situation as highly stressful. However, the two samples differed in the subgroups most affected by the changes, possibly because of the different welfare systems of the two countries. In fact, in the Italian sample sleep quality and timing underwent significant modifications especially in unemployed participants, whereas in the Belgian sample this category was the one who suffered less from the restrictions. Considering that the novel coronavirus has spread across the whole globe, involving countries with different types of health and welfare systems, understanding which policy measures have the most effective protecting role on physical and mental health is of primary importance.

Summary Research during the Covid‐19 pandemic has highlighted its significant impact on dreaming. Here we address changes in dream features both during the first wave, when the Italian government imposed a total lockdown, and the second wave (autumn 2020), when a partial lockdown was effected. In April 2020 (total lockdown), 1,622 participants (M age = 34.1 ± 13.6 years; 1171F) completed an online survey including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a set of questions on dream features and their possible changes relative to the month preceding the lockdown (pre‐total lockdown). In November 2020 (partial lockdown), 214 participants (M age = 36.78 ± 14.2 years; 159F) from the previous sample completed the same survey. Approximately half of the subjects reported increased or decreased dream frequency (30.5% and 21.8%), length (27.1% and 15.8%) and vividness (31.5% and 17.1%) during total lockdown as well as during partial lockdown (frequency: 30.3% and 13.5%; length: 23.3% and 12.6%; vividness: 31.6% and 24.1%). Dream affect became significantly more negative in total lockdown relative to pre‐total lockdown and in partial lockdown relative to pre‐partial lockdown (both p < .001). Both in total lockdown and partial lockdown, increased negative dream emotionality significantly predicted changes in dream frequency, length and vividness, and was significantly predicted, in turn, by worsened sleep quality. Our data confirm that dream features are significantly affected by major life changes such as those imposed by a pandemic. The fact that between lockdowns negative dream affect returned almost to baseline level suggests that dream emotionality is closely related to lifestyle and wake‐time emotional changes. Also, our findings point to a modulating role of sleep quality on dream emotionality.

The prolonged lockdown imposed to contain the COrona VIrus Disease 19 COVID-19 pandemic prevented many people from direct contact with nature and greenspaces, raising alarms for a possible worsening of mental health. This study investigated the effectiveness of a simple and affordable remedy for improving psychological well-being, based on audio-visual stimuli brought by a short computer video showing forest environments, with an urban video as a control. Randomly selected participants were assigned the forest or urban video, to look at and listen to early in the morning, and questionnaires to fill out. In particular, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Form Y collected in baseline condition and at the end of the study and the Part II of the Sheehan Patient Rated Anxiety Scale (SPRAS) collected every day immediately before and after watching the video. The virtual exposure to forest environments showed effective to reduce perceived anxiety levels in people forced by lockdown in limited spaces and environmental deprivation. Although significant, the effects were observed only in the short term, highlighting the limitation of the virtual experiences. The reported effects might also represent a benchmark to disentangle the determinants of health effects due to real forest experiences, for example, the inhalation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC).

Children undergoing magnetic resonance imaging examination frequently experience anxiety and fear before and during the scanning. The aim of the present study was to assess: i) whether and to what extent psychological interventions might reduce anxiety and fear levels; ii) whether the intervention is related to a decrease in the need for sedation. The interventions consisted of three activities: a clown show, dog interaction and live music. The emotional status (anxiety and fear) of the children was evaluated before and after the activities through a rating scale questionnaire. The results showed that the activities had high effectiveness in reducing the level of anxiety and fear and decreased the need for sedation in the experimental group compared to the control group. This approach proved to be a positive patient experience, helping to alleviate children’s anxiety and fear, decreasing the need for sedation, and was cost-effective.

Yawning, besides being a spontaneous behavior, can also be evoked by observing others yawn. However, contagious yawning does not always occur, depending possibly on several factors, such as one's propensity to spontaneously yawn and a heightened level of sleepiness. The aim of this study is to investigate in young adults whether contagious yawning frequency varies throughout the day, and if it is related to the daily time course of spontaneous yawning frequency and level of sleepiness. For the study, 22 subjects were instructed to log hourly, throughout wakefulness, the number of spontaneous yawns and sleepiness level. Subjects were required to continue this procedure for 3 consecutive days, after which they underwent five experimental sessions occurring at regular intervals throughout the same day. During each experimental session, subjects observed others yawn (stimulus condition) and smile (control condition). Our findings show that the contagious effect of yawning is always present throughout the daytime. Both contagious and spontaneous yawning peaked in the early morning and in the late evening, according to the sleepiness time course. However, the frequency of spontaneous yawns was remarkably lower than the frequency of contagious yawns around 19:00. This difference suggests that different mechanisms control spontaneous and contagious yawning.