Association Between Dreams, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms Among Japanese Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study

Among Japanese high school students, the frequency of rumination at bedtime and unpleasant dreams is strongly associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms. Rumination at bedtime showed an adjusted odds ratio of 10.60 for anxiety symptoms and 8.79 for depressive symptoms; unpleasant dreams showed 5.25 for anxiety and 10.13 for depression. Other dream features such as memory of dreams, emotional carryover, and awakening by frightening, film-like, fantastical, or recurring dreams also correlated with higher symptom prevalence, but pleasant dreams did not. These findings suggest that bedtime rumination and unpleasant dreams may serve as early indicators of declining mental health in adolescents.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Worsening adolescent mental health is a significant social issue. Although dreams may reflect one's mental state, few studies have focused on adolescents. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between dream content and mental health, specifically anxiety disorder and depressive symptoms, among Japanese adolescents. This cross-sectional study obtained data on gender, grade, age, lifestyle habits, weekday sleep duration, anxiety disorder symptoms, depressive symptoms, and dreams from Japanese high school students. The data were analyzed via multiple logistic regression analyses. The prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms increased with the frequency of "rumination at bedtime", "memory of dreams", "emotional carryover", and "awakening by frightening", "unpleasant", "film-like", "fantastical", and "recurring" dreams. However, this was not the case for "pleasant dreams". Furthermore, "rumination at bedtime" (anxiety disorder symptoms: adjusted odds ratio: 10.60; 95% confidence interval: 5.92-18.97; depressive symptoms: 8.79, 5.58-13.87) and "unpleasant dreams" (anxiety disorder symptoms: 5.25, 2.86-9.64; depressive symptoms: 10.13, 5.57-18.44) exhibited particularly high odds ratios. "Rumination at bedtime" and "unpleasant dreams" may serve as early indicators of declining mental health. School- and parent-led interventions aimed at improving mental well-being may help prevent the progression or exacerbation of anxiety and depressive symptoms among adolescents.