Stuck in a lockdown: Dreams, bad dreams, nightmares, and their relationship to stress, depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PLoS One January 1, 2021 Elizaveta Solomonova, Claudia Picard-Deland, Iris L Rapoport et al.
During the first COVID-19 lockdown (April–May 2020), 34% of 968 survey participants reported increased dream recall. The most common dream themes centered on inefficacy, human threat, death, and pandemic imagery. Dream, bad dream, and nightmare frequency was highest among those with moderate to severe stress levels. Frequency of bad dreams, nightmares, and dreams about the pandemic, inefficacy, and death were associated with higher stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms. The findings support theories linking dream content to environmental susceptibility and stress reactivity, with dreams reflecting existential concerns during the lockdown.