Pandemic Dreams: Network Analysis of Dream Content During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Pesonen, Anu‐Katriina; Lipsanen, Jari; Halonen, Risto; Elovainio, Marko; Sandman, Nils; Mäkelä, Juha Matti; Antila, Minea; Béchard, Deni; Ollila, Hanna; Kuula, Liisa

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.573961

Cited by 79 publications

(150 citation statements)

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“…The observed enhancement of negative emotions in dreams, with a predominance of fear, is consistent with the few existing data pointing to a spread of negative emotions [ 61 ], anxiety-related [MacKay and DeCicco, 2020] and pandemic-related content [ 48 ] in dreams during the 2020 lockdown. Moreover, we found a higher proportion of dream negative emotions in females, younger subjects, and participants with lower sleep quality, disruptive nocturnal behaviours, depressive and state/trait anxiety symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Pandemic dreams: quantitative and qualitative features of the oneiric activity during the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy

et al. 2021

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Objective The lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on daily habits, emotional experience, mental health and sleep. A large body of evidence suggests that dreams are affected by both waking experiences and sleep pattern. In this view, the lockdown should have induced intense modifications in dreaming activity. The aim of the study was to assess dream features during the lockdown in Italy. Methods We used an online survey to collect self-reported demographic, clinical, sleep and dream data. Our sample included 1091 participants. Results Results point to an increased dream frequency, emotional load, vividness, bizarreness and length during the lockdown, compared to a pre-lockdown period. Higher dream frequency and specific qualitative features were found in females and subjects with poor sleep quality, nocturnal disruptive behaviours and depressive symptoms. Most of the dream features assessed during the lockdown were predicted by age, gender, depressive symptoms, presence/absence of other people at home, and territorial area. A specific focus on sleep features revealed that sleep duration and several sleep quality indexes were the best predictors of dream variables. During the lockdown, dreams were also characterized by increased negative emotions, which were particularly frequent in females, younger adults, and participants with poor sleep quality, nocturnal disruptive behaviours, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Conclusions Our results confirm the hypothesis of a strong influence of the pandemic on dreaming, supporting both the hypothesis of continuity between wake and sleep mental processes and the view of a crucial influence of sleep quality and duration on dreaming activity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Pandemic dreams: quantitative and qualitative features of the oneiric activity during the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy

et al. 2021

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“…Schredl and Bulkeley ( 2020 ) reported greater dream recall and a higher likelihood of negative dream content during the pandemic. Pesonen et al ( 2020 ) found that 55% of reported dreams classified as “distressing” were pandemic-specific and included themes such as social distancing, personal protective equipment (PPE), and the infectivity of the virus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, studies analyzing dreams during the COVID-19 pandemic have largely used data from general populations with diverse demographic characteristics (Altena et al, 2020 ; Pesonen et al, 2020 ; Schredl and Bulkeley, 2020 ). Studies within a population with more demographic homogeneity may highlight the shared experience of pandemic lockdown, as similarities of lifestyle, age, and finances may result in further commonalities within dream content.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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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“…Recent data from web-based surveys reported a high prevalence of poor sleep quality in the general population during the COVID-19 outbreak (Cellini et al, 2020;Huang & Zhao, 2020;Xue et al, 2020). Moreover, recent studies have observed several pandemic-specific dream contents in the general population, such as failures in social distancing or coronavirus contagion, showing an association with increased stress (Pesonen et al, 2020). The presence of distressing dreams related with specific traumatic experiences, as a prolonged treatment in the Intensive Care Unit due to COVID-19, is relevant because it may represent an early symptom of the onset of stress-related disorders, being considered a diagnostic criterion for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the 5th ed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Sleep in a Large Spanish Sample

Santo

González‐Blanco

Rodríguez-Revuelta

et al. 2021

Behavioral Sleep Medicine

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Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) forced Spain to implement unprecedented lockdown restriction. In this context, different factors could worsen sleep quality, but the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on sleep is still mostly unknown. In this cross-sectional study, we describe self-reported sleep disturbances in people without mental health disorders from a large Spanish sample (n = 15,070). Methods: During the early phase of the lockdown (19-26 March), an online survey was launched using a snowball sampling method and included sociodemographic and clinical data along with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Impact of Event Scale (IES). Two items of the IES were employed to assess sleep characteristics. Descriptive and bivariate analysis and logistic regression models were performed. Results: Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep were reported by 23.9% of the sample and was associated in the regression model with age (OR = 1.008, p = .003), female sex (OR = 1.344, p < .001), an income reduction >50% (OR = 1.248, p = .037), having one (OR = 1.208, p = .029) and two or more (OR = 1.299, p = .035) elderly dependents, drinking alcohol (OR = 1.129, p = .024), and a higher score on DASS-21 depression (OR = 1.148, p < .001), anxiety (OR = 1.218, p < .001), or stress (OR = 1.302, p < .001) subscales, whereas being able to enjoy free time (OR = 0.604, p < .001) and painting or listening to music (OR = 0.853, p = .012) were protective factors. Dreams related to COVID-19 were reported by 12.9% of the sample and were associated in the regression model with female sex (OR = 1.617, p < .001), being married (OR = 1.190, p = .015), self-employed (OR = 1.373, p = .032), or a civil servant (OR = 1.412, p = .010), having been tested for COVID-19 (OR = 1.583, p = .012), having infected family or friends (OR = 1.233, p = .001), reading news about coronavirus (OR = 1.139, p = .023), drinking alcohol (OR = 1.251, p < .001), and higher scores on DASS-21 depression (OR = 1.102, p < .001), anxiety (OR = 1.222, p < .001), or stress (OR = 1.213, p < .001) subscales, while protective factors were older age (OR = 0.983, p < .001) and being retired (OR = 0.625, p = .045). Conclusions: These findings could help clinicians and public health systems design and deliver tailored interventions, such as internet-delivered campaigns, to promote sleep quality in the general population.

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Pandemic Dreams: Network Analysis of Dream Content During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Cited by 79 publications

References 42 publications

Pandemic dreams: quantitative and qualitative features of the oneiric activity during the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy

Pandemic dreams: quantitative and qualitative features of the oneiric activity during the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy

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

Early Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Sleep in a Large Spanish Sample

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