Pandemic dreaming: The effect of COVID-19 on dream imagery, a pilot study.

MacKay, Cassidy; DeCicco, Teresa L.

doi:10.1037/drm0000148

Cited by 52 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Additionally, participants reported remembering their dreams more often during the university lockdown period. These findings are consistent with early reports of the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on sleep: MacKay and DeCicco ( 2020 ) reported a higher incidence of location changes and animal imagery in dreams of university students during COVID-19, both of which have been linked to higher anxiety levels in previous studies (King and DeCicco, 2007 ). Schredl and Bulkeley ( 2020 ) reported greater dream recall and a higher likelihood of negative dream content during the pandemic.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Nightmares, with their intensified emotions, are more likely to be remembered. Thus, increased nightmares reported in our results and other studies (MacKay and DeCicco, 2020 ; Schredl and Bulkeley, 2020 ) may be indicative of a general decline in sleep quality throughout the pandemic leading to increased dream recall, rather than simply an increase in the proportion of nightmares.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…While the general effect of stress on sleep and dreaming has been thoroughly investigated (Payne and Nadel, 2004 ; Âkerstedt, 2006 ), the pandemic's global reach allows comparison of individual responses to a shared external stress that may shape common sleep patterns and dreams. Studies have employed social network analyses to explore pandemic dream content in Finland (Pesonen et al, 2020 ); dream diaries of university students collected over 2-week periods in Canada (MacKay and DeCicco, 2020 ), large online surveys in the U.S.A (Schredl and Bulkeley, 2020 ) and across the globe (Barrett, 2020 ); and natural language processing methodology to analyze dream reports in Brazil (Mota et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pandemic Nightmares: COVID-19 Lockdown Associated With Increased Aggression in Female University Students' Dreams

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated stressors have impacted the daily lives and sleeping patterns of many individuals, including university students. Dreams may provide insight into how the mind processes changing realities; dreams not only allow consolidation of new information, but may give the opportunity to creatively “play out” low-risk, hypothetical threat simulations. While there are studies that analyze dreams in high-stress situations, little is known of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted dreams of university students. The aim of this study was to explore how the dream content of students was affected during the university COVID-19 lockdown period (March–July, 2020). Using online survey methods, we analyzed dream recall content (n = 71) using the Hall-Van de Castle dream coding system and Fisher's exact tests for sex comparisons. Preliminary results indicate that female students experienced more nightmares as compared to male students. Dream analysis found that, relative to normative American College Student (ACS) samples generated pre-COVID-19, women were more likely to experience aggressive interactions in their dream content, including increased physical aggression. Results indicate that university students did experience changes in dream content due to the pandemic lockdown period, with women disproportionally affected. These findings can aid universities in developing support programs for students by bringing forth an understanding of students' concerns and anxieties as they process the “new normal” of social distancing.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pandemic Nightmares: COVID-19 Lockdown Associated With Increased Aggression in Female University Students' Dreams

et al. 2021

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“…A study surveying a sample of Chinese residents in Wuhan and surrounding cities showed that individuals who endorsed more post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were more likely to have poorer sleep quality (Liu et al, 2020). Studies have also found associations between the pandemic and dream quality and quantity; individuals reported more negative emotions in dreams (Schredl and Bulkeley, 2020;Gorgoni et al, 2021), increased pandemic-related dreams (MacKay and DeCicco, 2020;Pesonen et al, 2020). Among frontline medical workers, reduced sleep duration and efficiency were linked to frequent nightmares during the COVID-19 pandemic (Lin et al, 2021), highlighting the possibility of burnout and/or development of PTSD symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is COVID-19 Keeping us Up at Night? Stress, Anxiety, and Sleep Among Adult Twins

et al. 2021

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a variety of social distancing measures to mitigate the virus outbreak have been implemented. These measures may have unintended consequences on individuals’ well-being, such as increased stress, anxiety, and sleep disruptions. We investigated the extent to which individuals’ mental health status is associated with perceived changes in sleep amount and sleep quality among a sample of adult twin pairs (N = 909 pairs; 77% MZ, 23% DZ), less than a month after the outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. About half of participants reported no change in sleep amount (50.1%) or sleep quality (55.6%). Approximately one-third of the participants had increased amount of sleep (29.8%), and 32.9% reported a decrease in sleep quality. We found that stress and anxiety levels were associated with sleep reduction (ORs = 2.36 and 3.12 for stress and anxiety, respectively) and poorer sleep quality (ORs = 2.45 and 3.73 for stress and anxiety, respectively), even after taking into account between-family confounds. A much smaller association was observed between levels of stress and anxiety and increased sleep amount (ORs = 1.42 and 1.60 for stress and anxiety, respectively) and sleep quality (OR = 1.21 and 1.29 for stress and anxiety, respectively), which was no longer significant after controlling for between-family confounds. Our results demonstrate that stress and anxiety associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures may be linked to reduced sleep amount and quality.

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“…As to dreams with direct references to the pandemic, studies reported different frequencies of COVID-19-related dream content, varying from 8.2% (Schredl and Bulkeley, 2020) to 55% (Pesonen et al, 2020). Most dreams with pandemic-related content reflected the participants' fears of contracting the virus or close persons becoming ill or dying (Iorio et al, 2020;MacKay and DeCicco, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreaming in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Health Crisis: Survey Among a Sample of European School Students

Guerrero-Gomez¹,

Nöthen-Garunja²,

Schredl

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

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According to the continuity hypothesis of dreaming and contemporary psychodynamic approaches, dreams reflect waking life. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and dreaming in adolescents. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Italy, Romania and Croatia involving 2,105 secondary school students (69% girls, mean age 15.6 ± 2.1 years; 31% boys, mean age 15.1 ± 2.2 years; mean age of whole sample 15.4 ± 2.1 years). No substantial differences between countries were found. Thirty-one percent of the participants reported heightened dream recall, 18% noticed an increase in nightmares during the lockdown, and 15% of the provided dreams (n = 498) included pandemic-related content. The results indicate that subjective emotional reactions to lockdown had a significantly higher correlation to dreaming than objective distress (i.e., illness or death of a close one because of COVID-19). These findings suggest that attention to dreams should be included in preventive programs for adolescents with pandemic-related stress.

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Pandemic dreaming: The effect of COVID-19 on dream imagery, a pilot study.

Cited by 52 publications

References 27 publications

Pandemic Nightmares: COVID-19 Lockdown Associated With Increased Aggression in Female University Students' Dreams

Pandemic Nightmares: COVID-19 Lockdown Associated With Increased Aggression in Female University Students' Dreams

Is COVID-19 Keeping us Up at Night? Stress, Anxiety, and Sleep Among Adult Twins

Dreaming in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Health Crisis: Survey Among a Sample of European School Students

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