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Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Dreaming and insomnia are important markers of distress in times of crisis. Here, we present a longitudinal, mixed‐methods study examining changes in dreaming between individuals with and without insomnia symptoms and their relationship to mental health during the COVID‐19 pandemic. A global survey...

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Autores principales: Meaklim, Hailey, Burge, Malisa, Le, Flora, Bains, Sukjhit K., Saunders, William, Ghosh, Stephen, Junge, Moira F., Varma, Prerna, Rehm, Imogen C., Jackson, Melinda L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9350044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35699296
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13655
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author Meaklim, Hailey
Burge, Malisa
Le, Flora
Bains, Sukjhit K.
Saunders, William
Ghosh, Stephen
Junge, Moira F.
Varma, Prerna
Rehm, Imogen C.
Jackson, Melinda L.
author_facet Meaklim, Hailey
Burge, Malisa
Le, Flora
Bains, Sukjhit K.
Saunders, William
Ghosh, Stephen
Junge, Moira F.
Varma, Prerna
Rehm, Imogen C.
Jackson, Melinda L.
author_sort Meaklim, Hailey
collection PubMed
description Dreaming and insomnia are important markers of distress in times of crisis. Here, we present a longitudinal, mixed‐methods study examining changes in dreaming between individuals with and without insomnia symptoms and their relationship to mental health during the COVID‐19 pandemic. A global survey examining insomnia symptoms, dreams and mental health was launched in April 2020 and followed participants over 12 months. Of 2240 participants, 1009 (45%) reported dream changes at baseline. A higher proportion of participants with new‐onset insomnia reported dream changes (55%) than those with pre‐existing insomnia (45%) or good sleepers (36%). Overall, thematic analysis identified key dream change themes of increased dream activity, with participants dreaming vividly, in high‐definition, and with a strong negative charge. Themes around survival, adjusting to pandemic life, meaning‐making and poor sleep quality were also noted. Linguistic Inquiry Word Count showed that individuals with insomnia used more negative words to describe their dream changes than good sleepers. Specifically, the new‐onset insomnia group used more anxious and death‐related words than those who slept well. Notably, all groups experienced a significant reduction in dream activity by 3‐month follow‐up. Lastly, dream changes were associated with worse mental health symptoms over time, and this effect was more pronounced in individuals with insomnia. Our results highlight that insomnia symptoms, especially new‐onset insomnia, are associated with more negative dream changes during collective stressful events, potentially compounding daytime distress and mental health symptoms over time. During times of crisis, dreaming and insomnia may reveal an important target for mental health interventions.
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spelling pubmed-93500442022-08-04 Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic Meaklim, Hailey Burge, Malisa Le, Flora Bains, Sukjhit K. Saunders, William Ghosh, Stephen Junge, Moira F. Varma, Prerna Rehm, Imogen C. Jackson, Melinda L. J Sleep Res Research Articles Dreaming and insomnia are important markers of distress in times of crisis. Here, we present a longitudinal, mixed‐methods study examining changes in dreaming between individuals with and without insomnia symptoms and their relationship to mental health during the COVID‐19 pandemic. A global survey examining insomnia symptoms, dreams and mental health was launched in April 2020 and followed participants over 12 months. Of 2240 participants, 1009 (45%) reported dream changes at baseline. A higher proportion of participants with new‐onset insomnia reported dream changes (55%) than those with pre‐existing insomnia (45%) or good sleepers (36%). Overall, thematic analysis identified key dream change themes of increased dream activity, with participants dreaming vividly, in high‐definition, and with a strong negative charge. Themes around survival, adjusting to pandemic life, meaning‐making and poor sleep quality were also noted. Linguistic Inquiry Word Count showed that individuals with insomnia used more negative words to describe their dream changes than good sleepers. Specifically, the new‐onset insomnia group used more anxious and death‐related words than those who slept well. Notably, all groups experienced a significant reduction in dream activity by 3‐month follow‐up. Lastly, dream changes were associated with worse mental health symptoms over time, and this effect was more pronounced in individuals with insomnia. Our results highlight that insomnia symptoms, especially new‐onset insomnia, are associated with more negative dream changes during collective stressful events, potentially compounding daytime distress and mental health symptoms over time. During times of crisis, dreaming and insomnia may reveal an important target for mental health interventions. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9350044/ /pubmed/35699296 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13655 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Sleep Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Sleep Research Society. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Meaklim, Hailey
Burge, Malisa
Le, Flora
Bains, Sukjhit K.
Saunders, William
Ghosh, Stephen
Junge, Moira F.
Varma, Prerna
Rehm, Imogen C.
Jackson, Melinda L.
Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic
title Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic
title_full Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic
title_fullStr Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic
title_short Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic
title_sort strange themes in pandemic dreams: insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the covid‐19 pandemic
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9350044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35699296
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13655
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