Pandemic Dreams: Network Analysis of Dream Content During the COVID-19 Lockdown
A. Pesonen, J. Lipsanen, R. Halonen, M. Elovainio, N. Sandman, J. Mäkelä, Minea Antila, Denis Béchard, H. Ollila, L. Kuula
Frontiers in Psychology October 1, 2020 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.573961 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractDuring the sixth week of COVID-19 lockdown, a crowdsourcing survey of 4,275 respondents found that people slept substantially more (54.2%) but reported an average increase in awakenings (28.6%) and nightmares (26%) compared to before the pandemic. Analysis of dream content from 811 respondents using computational network and cluster analysis identified 33 dream clusters, including 20 bad dream clusters, 55% of which were pandemic-specific (e.g., Disease Management, Disregard of Distancing, Elderly in Trouble). Dream-association networks were more accentuated for those reporting increased perceived stress, introducing novel, collectively shared COVID-19 bad dream contents.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 4,275 |
| Population | Crowdsourcing respondents during COVID-19 lockdown |
| Duration | 1 week |
| Keywords | Psychology Medicine |
| Key finding | COVID-19 lockdown increased sleep duration, awakenings, and nightmares, with pandemic-specific bad dream contents emerging in dream-association networks. |
Abstract
We used crowdsourcing (CS) to examine how COVID-19 lockdown affects the content of dreams and nightmares. The CS took place on the sixth week of the lockdown. Over the course of 1 week, 4,275 respondents (mean age 43, SD = 14 years) assessed their sleep, and 811 reported their dream content. Overall, respondents slept substantially more (54.2%) but reported an average increase of awakenings (28.6%) and nightmares (26%) from the pre-pandemic situation. We transcribed the content of the dreams into word lists and performed unsupervised computational network and cluster analysis of word associations, which suggested 33 dream clusters including 20 bad dream clusters, of which 55% were pandemic-specific (e.g., Disease Management, Disregard of Distancing, Elderly in Trouble). The dream-association networks were more accentuated for those who reported an increase in perceived stress. This CS survey on dream-association networks and pandemic stress introduces novel, collectively shared COVID-19 bad dream contents.