Delusional ideation, or false beliefs, is linked to social factors such as feeling the presence of unseen others, loneliness, social anxiety, and empathy. A survey of 2,200 healthy adults during the COVID-19 pandemic found that all measured aspects of social imagery were positively associated with delusional ideation. The strongest predictor was felt presence, followed by loneliness, social fear, and empathic concern. The findings suggest that delusions may arise from common mechanisms with social imagination, and that alterations in social cognition contribute to delusional thinking.
A group intervention combining cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia and imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares reduced insomnia severity, nightmare distress and frequency, PTSD severity, dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs, and insomnia-related ruminations, while increasing life satisfaction in 60 current and former military and law-enforcement personnel with PTSD. Sleep-diary measures improved, including shorter sleep onset latency, longer total sleep time, less wake after sleep onset, and higher sleep efficiency. Improvements in insomnia severity and nightmare distress each correlated with improvements in PTSD. The findings support the real-world effectiveness of jointly addressing insomnia and nightmares in trauma-exposed populations.
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.