Dreaming during COVID-19: the effects of a world trauma
Cristina Marogna, Emanuele Montanari, Silvio Contiero, Klodjana Lleshi
Research in Psychotherapy Psychopathology Process and Outcome August 24, 2021 DOI: 10.4081/ripppo.2021.541 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Participants recruited via WhatsApp during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Duration | 14 days |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 8 |
| Key findings | The authors report that their qualitative analysis found clusters of COVID-19-related dream imagery comparable to those in Pesonen et al. (2020), and they argue that unprocessed 'daytime elements' reappeared in dreams, reflecting traumatic pandemic experiences that recall PTSD symptoms and affect sleep and daily life. |
Abstract
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a state of health emergency affecting the entire world population. Given the serious practical and psychological difficulties and complications that have been experienced during this period, many scholars have created hypothesis, as a consequence, an increased possibility of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within the general population with significant implications for one’s dream activity. Participants in the study were recruited via the instant messaging application ‘WhatsApp’ for a period of 14 days. The study consisted of three phases: the first phase provided information on the purpose of the research and how to carry it out; in the second phase, each participant, using the Bionian model of dream experience as a focus, was asked to write down dreams, emotions and free connections/associations related to the dream. At the end of the collection, the texts obtained were analysed by means of a qualitative analysis performed with the aid of the MAXQDA software. The study confirms the computational and exploratory analysis of the text carried out in the research of Pesonen et al. (2020), finding also in our sample the presence of the hypothesized clusters going to explain the manifestation of imagery related to COVID-19 also within the dream activity. To confirm this, the nightmare of participant number 6 of the study is reported. The following qualitative research has offered an insight into the traumatic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, showing how many unmetabolized ‘daytime elements’ have been reproposed in the dream scenario, recalling the symptomatology of PTSD through the presence of distressing content that affect the quality of sleep and the daily life of the individual.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Other as a Nightmare: The Israeli-Arab Encounter as Reflected in Children's Dreams in Israel and the West Bank Jewish and Arab fifth to seventh graders living in various settings in Israel and the... | 1989 | Qualitative content analysis | n = 212 |
| Nonwaking Responses to Waking Stressors: Dreams and Nightmares1 Men from the cohort eligible for military duty during the Vietnam Conflict, varying in... | 1990 | Survey interview study | n = 442 |
| Communing with the Gods: The Dreaming Brain in Cross-cultural Perspective | 2011 | Phenomenological study | |
| Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Lucid dreamers | 2020 | Qualitative study | |
| Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic Global survey participants | 2022 | Longitudinal mixed-methods study | n = 2,240 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls. International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHP 2023
- An observatory on changes in dreaming during a pandemic: a living systematic review (part 1). Journal of Sleep Research June 1, 2023
- The extended unconscious group field and metabolization of pandemic experience: dreaming together to keep cohesion alive. Research in psychotherapy December 29, 2022
- Lockdown dreams: Dream content and emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in an italian sample. Psychoanalytic psychology September 27, 2021
Cites 13
- Dreaming during the Covid-19 pandemic: Computational assessment of dream reports reveals mental suffering related to fear of contagion PLoS One November 30, 2020
- Dreaming and the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey in a U.S. sample. Dreaming September 1, 2020
- Pandemic Nightmares: COVID-19 Lockdown Associated With Increased Aggression in Female University Students' Dreams Frontiers in Psychology March 5, 2021
- The association between reported nightmares and depressive symptoms in a non-clinical large sample of Arab students Sleep Medicine and Disorders International Journal October 27, 2017
- Pandemic nightmares: Effects on dream activity of the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Journal of Sleep Research October 1, 2021
and 8 more in the library