Adrijana Koscec Bjelajac

2 papers in the library · publishing 2026

Papers

Lucid Dreaming: Not Just Awareness, but Agency.

Journal of Sleep Research April 1, 2026 Severin Ableidinger, Luigi De Gennaro, Sérgio Mota-Rolim et al.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, about 30% of people frequently knew they were dreaming (lucid dreaming), and roughly half of those (17%) could influence their dreams (lucid dreaming with agency). Female gender and anxiety symptoms were linked to less ability to influence dreams, while dream recall, nightmares, insomnia, dream enactment behavior, sleep vocalization, short and long COVID, and PTSD were linked to more ability. Older age, dream recall, nightmares, and anxiety were linked to lucid dreaming without agency, while short sleep, being an evening type, and short COVID were linked to less of it. The different patterns suggest lucid dreaming with and without agency may be distinct sleep states, and this is the first study showing COVID-19 and long COVID are associated with lucid dreaming.

DOI: 10.1111/jsr.70181 Full text Lucid dreaming Covid‐19 Agency Dreams +2

Prevalence Rates of Frequent Dream Recall and Nightmares by Age, Gender and Sleep Duration in 16 Countries.

Journal of Sleep Research February 1, 2026 Courtney J Bolstad, Bjørn Bjorvatn, Ngan Yin Chan et al.

In a large multi-country survey of 15,854 adults, frequent dream recall (at least weekly) was reported by 54.0% of participants in 2021 and 51.1% in 2019. Frequent nightmares rose from 6.9% in 2019 to 11.0% in 2021, suggesting an increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dream recall showed a linear relationship with sleep duration, while nightmare frequency had a quadratic relationship. Prevalence rates varied by age, gender, and country. This is the first multi-continent study to provide these prevalence estimates across 16 countries, including some never studied before.

DOI: 10.1111/jsr.70070 Full text Dreaming Covid‐19 Bad dreams Disturbing dreams