Dreaming during the COVID-19 lockdown: a comparison of Italian adolescents and adults

Abstract

Based on the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, we have studied the effects of lockdown measures on Italian adolescents’ and adults’ dreams during the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A sample of 475 subjects (73.9% women; 48.4% adolescents; ages 12-70 years, M=25.10, SD=12.2) was recruited via the Internet between April 17, 2020 and May 18, 2020. Participants were asked to provide socio-demographic data, as well as to report their Most Recent Dream. Results indicated that adults’ dreams were the longest, as well as characterized by higher emotional intensity, predominantly negative emotions, and a higher presence of sensory impressions. Furthermore, results indicated that the participants, especially adolescents, who were most directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic reported the strongest effects on their dreams. Results also indicated that women recall dreams more often than men, in addition to reporting higher emotional intensity, predominantly negative emotions, and a higher presence of sensory impressions. Finally, results of the Thematic Analysis of Elementary Contexts showed that adults’ dreams seem to be centered, above all, on both pleasant memories linked to experiences that are now forbidden (i.e., traveling, meeting friends) as well as on nightmares, while adolescents’ dreams focused on relationships with others. Finally, both adults and adolescents reported dreams related to the experience of home confinement, which they described in terms of the negative emotions they experienced. In sum, the findings of this study indicate that the COVID-19 lockdown measures, understood as a contextual and traumatic event, significantly affect people’s oneiric lives, regardless of age.

Dreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative review

“…The emotional intensity of dreams during the pandemic was greater in females ( Iorio et al, 2020 , Gorgoni et al, 2021a , Sommantico et al, 2021 ), which also reported more negative emotional tone or more frequent negative emotions in dreams ( Barrett, 2020 ; Iorio et al, 2021; Gorgoni et al, 2021a ). Dream emotional intensity was also associated with younger age, depressive symptoms, territorial area (i.e., north of Italy), living alone during the lockdown, poorer sleep quality, greater sleep duration, sleep disturbance, and daytime dysfunctions ( Gorgoni et al, 2021a ), job change and asking for help from mental health professional ( Scarpelli et al, 2021c ).…”

“…Several studies found higher dream frequency ( Iorio et al, 2020 , Gorgoni et al, 2021a , Fränkl et al, 2021 , Scarpelli et al, 2021a ) or a greater percentage of high dream recallers ( Sommantico et al, 2021 ) in women than men during the pandemic. Younger age was related to greater dream frequency ( Gorgoni et al, 2021a , Fränkl et al, 2021 , Scarpelli et al, 2021a ) and a greater percentage of high dream recallers ( Sommantico et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Moreover, in one study greater emotional intensity was observed in people who stopped working, reported modification of the sleep onset, and changed habits at morning awakening ( Scarpelli et al, 2021a ). One paper reported more frequent dream negative emotions in younger adults, and participants with poor sleep quality, nocturnal disruptive behaviors, anxiety, and depressive symptoms ( Gorgoni et al, 2021a ), and a more negative emotional tone was observed in people who had stopped working, reported modification of the sleep onset and changed habits at morning awakening ( Scarpelli et al, 2021a ), and in adults compared with adolescents ( Sommantico et al, 2021 ). The negative emotional tone was also associated with forced quarantine, having relatives/friends infected by COVID-19, and asking for help from mental health professional ( Scarpelli et al, 2021c ).…”

“…The main findings show that a) women exhibited greater dream emotional intensity, predominantly negative dream emotional tone, greater negative emotions and sensory impressions than men, b) 20% of the reported dreams had explicit COVID-19 references, c) participants knowing people affected by or died for COVID-19 exhibited greater emotional intensity and sensory impressions in dreams, d) the most recent dreams were more likely set in external locations and showed negative emotions (mainly for dangerous, violent, and frustrating situations). The same research group collected the most recent dream around the end of the lockdown in adults and adolescents, also performing a stemming process and a Thematic Analysis of Elementary Contexts ( Sommantico et al, 2021 ). The authors found that females reported longer dreams, lower positive emotions, higher negative emotions, and greater presence of sensory impressions than males.…”

“…Therefore, it is difficult to provide a reliable characterization of dream contents during the pandemic. Despite such heterogeneity, a common observation obtained through the analysis of dream contents/themes is the pandemic-related increase or the frequent presence during the pandemic of distressing, emotionally negative contents in the oneiric activity ( Mota et al, 2020 , Musse et al, 2020 , Iorio et al, 2020 , Kennedy et al, 2022 ; Kilius net al, 2021; Sommantico et al, 2021 ; Pesonen et al, 2020 ; Solomonova et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ; Alghamdi et al, 2022 ). The presence of explicit pandemic-related contents and themes has been revealed by several studies but results about their prevalence are not consistent ( MacKay and DeCicco, 2020 , Musse et al, 2020 , Mota et al, 2020 , Iorio et al, 2020 , Sommantico et al, 2021 , Pesonen et al, 2020 , Borghi et al, 2021 , Kennedy et al, 2022 , Solomonova et al, 2021 , Guerrero-Gomez et al, 2021 , Alghamdi et al, 2022 ).…”