Pandemic Nightmares: COVID-19 Lockdown Associated With Increased Aggression in Female University Students' Dreams
Frontiers in Psychology March 5, 2021 Erica Kilius, Noor H. Abbas, Leela McKinnon et al. 56 citations
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown (March–July 2020), university students' dream content changed. Female students reported more nightmares than male students. Compared to pre-pandemic normative samples, women experienced more aggressive interactions in their dreams, including increased physical aggression. Dreams may reflect how the mind processes stressful realities and simulate hypothetical threats. These findings suggest that the pandemic lockdown period affected students' dream content, with women disproportionately impacted, which can help universities develop support programs addressing students' anxieties about social distancing.