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Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls

The present study examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emotional quality of dreams, the incorporation of pandemic-related themes, and the occurrence of lucid dreaming. Dream reports and lucidity ratings of psychiatric outpatients (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 81) during two lockd...

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Autores principales: Koppehele-Gossel, Judith, Weinmann, Lena-Marie, Klimke, Ansgar, Windmann, Sabine, Voss, Ursula
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Asociacion Espanola de Psicologia Conductual 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9790876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36589551
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2022.100364
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author Koppehele-Gossel, Judith
Weinmann, Lena-Marie
Klimke, Ansgar
Windmann, Sabine
Voss, Ursula
author_facet Koppehele-Gossel, Judith
Weinmann, Lena-Marie
Klimke, Ansgar
Windmann, Sabine
Voss, Ursula
author_sort Koppehele-Gossel, Judith
collection PubMed
description The present study examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emotional quality of dreams, the incorporation of pandemic-related themes, and the occurrence of lucid dreaming. Dream reports and lucidity ratings of psychiatric outpatients (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 81) during two lockdowns in Germany were compared to those of healthy controls (n = 33) before the pandemic. Results confirmed previous reports that pandemic-specific themes were incorporated into dreams. Overall, however, incorporation into dreams was rare. Contrary to expectations, psychiatric outpatients did not differ from controls in the frequency of dream incorporation of pandemic-related content. Moreover, incorporation was independent of psychiatric symptoms and loneliness. Loneliness was, however, associated with threat-related content, suggesting that it represents a risk for bad dreams but not for crisis-specific dream incorporation. Regarding lucid dreaming, both groups had similar scores for its underlying core dimensions, i.e., insight, control, and dissociation, during the two lockdowns. Scores for control and dissociation but not insight were lower compared to the pre-pandemic sample. Our working hypothesis is that REM sleep during lockdowns intensified as a means of increased emotional consolidation, rendering the associated mental state less hybrid and thereby less lucid.
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spelling pubmed-97908762022-12-27 Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls Koppehele-Gossel, Judith Weinmann, Lena-Marie Klimke, Ansgar Windmann, Sabine Voss, Ursula Int J Clin Health Psychol Original Article The present study examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emotional quality of dreams, the incorporation of pandemic-related themes, and the occurrence of lucid dreaming. Dream reports and lucidity ratings of psychiatric outpatients (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 81) during two lockdowns in Germany were compared to those of healthy controls (n = 33) before the pandemic. Results confirmed previous reports that pandemic-specific themes were incorporated into dreams. Overall, however, incorporation into dreams was rare. Contrary to expectations, psychiatric outpatients did not differ from controls in the frequency of dream incorporation of pandemic-related content. Moreover, incorporation was independent of psychiatric symptoms and loneliness. Loneliness was, however, associated with threat-related content, suggesting that it represents a risk for bad dreams but not for crisis-specific dream incorporation. Regarding lucid dreaming, both groups had similar scores for its underlying core dimensions, i.e., insight, control, and dissociation, during the two lockdowns. Scores for control and dissociation but not insight were lower compared to the pre-pandemic sample. Our working hypothesis is that REM sleep during lockdowns intensified as a means of increased emotional consolidation, rendering the associated mental state less hybrid and thereby less lucid. Asociacion Espanola de Psicologia Conductual 2023 2022-12-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9790876/ /pubmed/36589551 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2022.100364 Text en © 2022 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Original Article
Koppehele-Gossel, Judith
Weinmann, Lena-Marie
Klimke, Ansgar
Windmann, Sabine
Voss, Ursula
Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls
title Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls
title_full Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls
title_fullStr Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls
title_full_unstemmed Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls
title_short Dreaming during a pandemic: Low incorporation of COVID-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls
title_sort dreaming during a pandemic: low incorporation of covid-19-specific themes and lucidity in dreams of psychiatric patients and healthy controls
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9790876/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36589551
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2022.100364
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