Dream content in complicated grief: a window into loss-related cognitive schemas.
Anne Germain, Katherine M Shear, Colleen Walsh, Daniel J Buysse, Timothy H Monk, Charles F. Reynolds, Ellen Frank, Russell Silowash
Death Studies March 1, 2013 DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2011.641138 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case-control study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 77 |
| Population | Adults with complicated grief |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Humans Matched-pair analysis Case-control studies Grief Dreams Mental disorders Sex factors Middle aged Female |
| Key findings | Dreams of adults with complicated grief contained more family and familiar characters, including the deceased among women, and fewer social interactions and emotions than a normative sample. The authors propose that the increased familiar characters may reflect attempts to reorganize relational cognitive schemas to compensate for the loss. |
Abstract
Bereavement and its accompanying psychological response (grief) constitute potent experiences that necessitate the reorganization of cognitive-affective representations of lost significant attachment figures during both wakefulness and dreaming. The goals of this preliminary study were to explore whether the dream content of 77 adults with complicated grief (CG) differed from that of a normative sample and whether CG patients who dream of the deceased differ from CG patients who do not dream of the deceased on measures of daytime emotional distress. CG dreams were characterized by more family and familiar characters including the deceased (in women), and fewer social interactions and emotions compared to norms. Increased representations of familiar characters in CG dreams may reflect attempts to reorganize relational cognitive schemas to compensate for the loss.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Student volunteers trained to become lucid and signal lucidity with horizontal eye... | 2009 | Observational study | n = 6 |
| Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Young adults with a mean age of 20 years | 2002 | Prospective observational study | n = 116 |
| Long-term effects of extreme situational stress on sleep and dreaming Survivors of traumatic events who complained of sleep disturbances, compared with... | 1987 | Case-control study | n = 11 |
| The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Adults who reported dreams | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 147 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- ‘No Man is an Island’: Effects of social seclusion on social dream content and REM sleep British Journal of Psychology June 9, 2021
- Dreams of the deceased: A scoping and mixed-methods systematic review. Sleep Medicine April 1, 2026
- The numinous experience in the context of psychopathology and traumatic stress studies Culture & Psychology September 1, 2021
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