Dream Content Research Articles

Dream content and depressive symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum

• More negative dreams are experienced by depressed pregnant women and new mothers. • Postpartum negative dream content predicts postpartum depressive symptoms. • Dreams can reflect waking-life concerns for future and new mothers. • Dreams may help detect adaptation and psychological issues in expecting mothers.

Transformation of Japanese university students’ dreaming under situation of new coronavirus infection A Time-series Analysis of the Relationship on the changes of Life in the COVID-19 and Dream Contents

Transformation of Japanese university students’ dreaming under situation of new coronavirus infection A Time-series Analysis of the Relationship on the changes of Life in the COVID-19 and Dream Contents

The memory sources of dreams: serial awakenings across sleep stages and time of night.

Memories of waking-life events are incorporated into dreams, but their incorporation is not uniform across a night of sleep. This study aimed to elucidate ways in which such memory sources vary by sleep stage and time of night. Twenty healthy participants (11 F; 24.1 ± 5.7 years) spent a night in the laboratory and were awakened for dream collection approximately 12 times spread across early, middle, and late periods of sleep, while covering all stages of sleep (N1, N2, N3, REM). In the morning, participants identified and dated associated memories of waking-life events for each dream report, when possible. The incorporation of recent memory sources in dreams was more frequent in N1 and REM than in other sleep stages. The incorporation of distant memories from over a week ago, semantic memories not traceable to a single event, and anticipated future events remained stable throughout sleep. In contrast, the relative proportions of recent versus distant memory sources changed across the night, independently of sleep stage, with late-night dreams in all stages having relatively less recent and more remote memory sources than dreams earlier in the night. Qualitatively, dreams tended to repeat similar themes across the night and in different sleep stages. The present findings clarify the temporal course of memory incorporations in dreams, highlighting a specific connection between time of night and the temporal remoteness of memories. We discuss how dream content may, at least in part, reflect the mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation.

Non-REM parasomnias: a scoping review of dreams and dreamlike mentation

To establish patterns or themes of dreams and dreamlike mentation content reported in all forms of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnias and to identify gaps in the current understanding of this topic. A scoping review of available evidence on dreams and dreamlike mentation in NREM parasomnias was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. We searched peer-reviewed literature using Google Scholar, PubMed, Ovid (Embase), Ovid Medline®, Global Health, and APA Psych Info. The Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to appraise the quality of selected articles. The final analysis included 16 studies. All of the studies were from high-income countries. The studies reported on dreams and dreamlike mentation in NREM parasomnias, but there was scarcity of literature for sexsomnia, sleep-related eating disorder, and confusional arousal. All of the studies had the highest quality as shown by the MMAT (76%-100%). Emotions such as apprehension and misfortune were associated with sleepwalking and sleep terrors. Sleep studies involving collection of dream content immediately following NREM parasomnia could significantly minimize reporting bias and improve dream data quality.

Global dissociation of the posterior amygdala from the rest of the brain during REM sleep

Rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS) or paradoxical sleep is associated with intense neuronal activity, fluctuations in autonomic control, body paralysis and brain-wide hyperemia. The mechanisms and functions of these energy-demanding patterns remain elusive and a global picture of brain activation during REMS is currently missing. In the present work, we performed functional ultrasound imaging on rats over multiple coronal and sagittal brain sections during hundreds of spontaneous REMS episodes to provide the spatiotemporal dynamics of vascular activity in 259 brain regions spanning more than 2/3 of the total brain volume. We first demonstrate a dissociation between basal/midbrain and cortical structures, the first ones sustaining tonic activation during REMS while the others are activated in phasic bouts. Second, we isolated the vascular compartment in our recordings and identified arteries in the anterior part of the brain as strongly involved in the blood supply during REMS episodes. Finally, we report a peculiar activation pattern in the posterior amygdala, which is strikingly disconnected from the rest of the brain during most REMS episodes. This last finding suggests that the amygdala undergoes specific processing during REMS and may be linked to the regulation of emotions and the creation of dream content during this very state.

Bad Dreams and Nightmares Preceding Suicidal Behaviors.

Objective: Nightmares seem to predict suicidal behaviors, and the aim of this study is to explore the chronology and trajectories of alterations in dream contents before a suicidal crisis, distinguishing 3 different experiences: bad dreams, nightmares, and suicidal scenarios during dreams. Methods: This naturalistic study included individuals hospitalized between January 2021 and May 2021 in a psychiatric post–emergency room unit for suicidal crisis (thoughts and attempts). Results: The study observed that 80% (n = 32/40) of patients had altered dreams (AD) before the suicidal crisis, including 27 (67.5%) with bad dreams, 21 (52.5%) with nightmares (bad dreams that awaken the sleeper), and 9 (22.5%) with suicidal scenarios during dreams. No differences were observed between the AD group versus patients with no altered dreams (ND) regarding sociodemographic characteristics. We observed a progression of dream content alterations: bad dreams appear 111 days (4 months) before the suicidal crisis, then nightmares appear 87.3 days before (3 months), and suicidal scenarios during dreams were reported 45.2 days before (1.5 months). For the AD and ND populations in suicidal crisis, 80% had at least 1 subtype of dream alterations, 40% had bad dreams and nightmares, and 17.5% had all 3 subtypes. The AD group, compared to the ND group, had significantly more family history of insomnia (P = .046). Almost all patients (97.5%) had depressive symptoms (Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale score ≥ 7; 82.5% had moderate to severe symptoms, MADRS ≥ 20), 60% had insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index > 14), 92.5% had altered sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index > 5), and 57.5% reported sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale > 10). Conclusions: Dream alterations and their progression can be readily assessed and may help to better identify prodromal signs of suicidal behaviors.

P012 The content and impact of dreams during late pregnancy – a qualitative exploration

Abstract Background While dreams are part of healthy sleep there remains controversy about their interpretation - whether intertwined with waking life or as structurally distinct. During pregnancy, dreaming has been correlated with emotional state and is often more frequent, vivid and disturbing, but there is little qualitative exploration of the content and impacts of pregnancy dreams. Objective The aim of this study was to explore dreaming experiences during late pregnancy. Methods Ten pregnant people (32-39 weeks gestation) with no diagnosis of a sleep disorder were recruited for a qualitative study describing experiences of sleep in late pregnancy, including exploration of their dreams. Following informed consent, semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face or via videoconference. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically. Analysis of dreaming data is presented. Results Participants were of New Zealand European (8) and European (2) background. Several experienced more frequent, often intense and impacting dreams, which included more sexual dreams, dreams perceived to be preparing for the future (for birth, baby and parenthood) and dreams associated with anxiety (about birth or losing the baby). These dreams were often disturbing and sometimes led to ongoing stressful thoughts the next day. Conclusion Dreams during late pregnancy tend to be more frequent and graphic, and may represent underlying anxieties or impact on emotional wellbeing. Whilst for some, intense dreams may be seen as a normal part of pregnancy, for others dreams in pregnancy can be disturbing and warrant discussion and exploration with health professionals to potentially resolve anxieties around pregnancy and birth.

Nightmare distress is related to traumatic childhood experiences, critical life events and emotional appraisal of a dream rather than to its content.

Nightmares are a substantial burden for sleep quality. Previous studies have shown that traumatic experiences can increase the probability of nightmares, and also waking-life distress can enhance this effect. There is evidence that the intensity of negative dream emotions is more responsible for rating a dream as a nightmare than threatening dream contents. However, there is still a lack of research concerning effects on nightmare distress. We hypothesise that traumatic childhood experiences (such as emotional abuse, obtained by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire), critical life events (obtained by the Social Readjustment Rating Scale) and threatening dream contents are associated with nightmare distress. A sample of N= 103 participants kept a dream diary over 28 consecutive days. About 60% of the sample were frequent nightmare dreamers. The participants recorded their violent dream contents and dream emotions in their diary. To predict nightmare distress, regression models were constructed; nightmare distress was measured with the Nightmare Distress Questionnaire. Results showed that emotional abuse in childhood and critical life events predicted nightmare distress. Moreover, violent dream contents were associated with nightmare distress but, after we controlled for nightmare frequency and the intensity of negative dream emotions, the significant impact of violent dream contents decreased. The results suggest that the emotional appraisal of a dream has a substantial influence on nightmares in addition to traumatic childhood experiences and critical life events.

STABILITY AND VARIABILITY OF UDMURT DREAM NARRATIVES: A CASE STUDY OF SAME OF THE SAME FOLKLORE TEXTS RECORDED AT DIFFERENT TIME

The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of chronologically different narratives about dreams and examines their stability and variability. The objects of the research are five same dream stories recorded in 2018 and 2020 from the same informant in the rural locality ( selo ) of Zavialovo, the Udmurt Republic. The narratives under consideration belong to one classification group - otherworldly dreams, the plot-forming motif of which is communication with deceased close relatives. While analyzing the stability and variability of the folklore texts, I take into account their composition and suggest new terms "dream-text" ( снотекст ) to denote the part that comprises the dream itself and "dream-comments" ( снокомментарии ) to denote narrator's explanations and remarks on the reported dream. The dream-comments are divided into three groups: introductory / pre-text, in-text and final / post-text comments. It has been revealed that dream-comments undergo the greatest changes - they can either extend or reduce, contain non-repeating data and interpretations, thus playing a key role in text compression. Conversely, the dream-texts do not alter dramatically, demonstrating remarkable stability: slight variability can be found only at the structural level (internal permutations of structural elements in the dream-text) and lexical level (the use of synonymous words and expressions that do not change the content of the described dream). It can be explained by the informant’s inclination to convey the dream content as accurately as possible and preserve its significant details. The stability of the dream texts is observed at the grammatical level, namely the verb tense usage, and at the syntactical level, namely the usage of the mixture of direct and indirect speech. The prevalence of present tense verb forms in narration aims to blur time boundaries, create the illusion of the reality, so the dream is not just remembered, but presented hit et nunc to listeners. All considered dream narratives perfectly fit into the Udmurt traditional religious and mythological system, reflecting and reinforcing existing beliefs (the need to remember the dead, beliefs about posthumous existence), thereby emphasizing that retold dreams are culturally constituted and encouraged.

The Nature of Dreams in Persons with Neurological Disorders

A theoretical analysis of the features of dreams in people who have suffered a stroke is presented in the ar­ticle. The content of dreams may indicate the presence of somatic abnormalities, but in a distorted, symbolic form. In stroke, sleep disorders are a negative predictor of the effectiveness of the rehabili­tation stage. The results of empirical study of the characteristics of dreams in stroke patients (10 men, 10 women aged 21 to 65, average age-47.2) and in conditionally healthy people (7 men, 13 women aged 28 to 56, average age - 46.6) showed that the quality of sleep is worse in the group with somatic disorders in comparison with conditionally healthy people, and it also revealed differences in the content of dreams. In the dreams of people with somatic disorders, the desire to change their physical or mental state is manifested.

In Case You Haven't Heard…

Dreams are different for anxious people, according to a new study published in Dreaming, which analyzes the dreams of people with anxiety disorders, Forbes reported July 17. The study suggests these frequently troubling dreams can turn the waking life of such individuals into a nightmare if they are not provided with the right care. “The results of our study reveal that the dream contents of anxiety patients differ significantly from the dream contents of healthy persons and contain more negative and unpleasant elements,” explained lead author and psychologist Anton Rimsh of Universität Düsseldorf in Germany. Rimsh's study tracked the dream contents of 38 anxiety patients through dream diaries, questionnaires, and one‐on‐one dream analysis. The results of the study found several dream topics to be more prevalent in anxiety patients compared with healthy persons. These themes include being chased and pursued, being physically attacked and facing aggressive actions, and the fear of falling. However, Rimsh warned that anxiety patients can find themselves stuck in negative feedback loops between their waking life and dreams, i.e., the negative dreams can worsen anxiety symptoms in their waking life which makes for even more disturbing dreams and so on.

COVID-19 nightmare response and stress: A new Mexico sample based survey

Studies conducted during the COVID-19 Pandemic have reported increased rates of mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [1]. A common symptom of mental illness is change in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, the phase of sleep associated with dreaming and nightmares. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of systemic stress on nightmares.In this study, we investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic affects nightmare frequency and content using a web-based survey within the state of New Mexico. The survey returned 197 responses showing an increase in the quantity of both bad dreams and nightmares. Furthermore, significant changes in nightmare themes were reported compared to relative rates prior to the pandemic (RR 1,42, p < 0.01; RR 5, p < 0.001). This novel data supports that increased stress from the COVID-19 pandemic has altered dream and nightmare content and frequency.

Mindfulness, Meditation, and Lucid Dreaming: A Narrow vs. Broad-Spectrum Mindfulness Study

Both lucid dreaming and mindfulness appear to involve metacognition and awareness, or “awareness of awareness” in which one is aware and consciously attends to present experiences. Despite evidence for the continuity hypothesis of dreaming (which posits dream content is connected and related to the concerns and thoughts in waking life), little research has explored a relationship between lucid dreaming and waking mindfulness. The present study explores the relationship among mindfulness experience, meditation practice history, and lucid dreaming. Undergraduate students and meditators completed questionnaires assessing trait mindfulness, lucid dreaming frequency, and meditation practices. Surprisingly, lucid dreaming was not associated with meditation practice frequency or narrow-spectrum mindfulness experiences like present-centered awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance. Lucid dreaming frequency was predicted only by dream recall and mindfulness-related experiences of Transcendence. Possible personality implications are discussed.

Indigenous Chinese personality and dream content of Hong Kong and Taiwanese people.

Indigenous Chinese personality and dream content of Hong Kong and Taiwanese people.

Semisupervised lexicon generation using semantic relations for dream content analysis.

Semisupervised lexicon generation using semantic relations for dream content analysis.

Do you remember if you have olfactory dreams? A content analysis of LOFTER and a questionnaire survey conducted in China

ObjectivesDreams often involve visual and auditory sensations, but olfactory experiences have not received the same amount of attention. This study explores the prevalence and content of olfactory dreams in China and investigates the relationship between olfactory imagery, olfactory significance, and olfactory dreamers. MethodsIn the first part of the study, 4302 dream records from LOFTER were screened and classified to preliminarily identify the prevalence and content of olfactory dreams. In the second part, 718 participants completed an online questionnaire about olfactory dreams, imagery, and significance. ResultsThe prevalence of olfactory dreams in the diary dream entries and questionnaire survey participants were 3.95% and 18.70%, respectively. Instances in which odors appeared in dreams were more positive than negative and were mainly related to food, burning and smoke, body odor, nature, and certain environments and objects. Moreover, individuals with olfactory dreams showed better olfactory imagery, and stronger olfactory significance. ConclusionsOlfactory sensations occurred in the dreams of Chinese individuals, but their prevalence was very low. Most of the odors that emerged in these dreams were ones that the dreamers were familiar with in their daily lives.

Dreams and nightmares during the pandemic.

The pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a huge impact on public mental health. This was also reflected in dreams. Not only did people start to remember more dreams, but dream content changed as themes like sickness, confinement, and—in the English-speaking world—even bugs began to dominate. This also led to an increase in nightmare frequency. There are various factors that contributed to this change in the dream landscape. Some people have started to sleep more and hereby spend more time in REM sleep, which is known to increase dream recall and further lead to bizarre and vivid dreams. On the other hand, stress and poor mental health had an impact on sleep, and sleep quality thus dropped in many individuals. Poor sleep quality can also lead to an increase in dream recall. Dreams are known to regulate mood, so the rise in dreams and the change in dream content could also reflect a reaction to the overall rise in stress and decline in mental health. Recent studies have shown that as the pandemic progresses, further changes in mental health, dream recall, and dream content arise, but data are still scarce. Further research could help understand the impact the pandemic still has on mental health and dreams, and how this impact is changing over the course of the pandemic.

The vision of dreams: from ontogeny to dream engineering in blindness.

Vitali H, Campus C, De Giorgis V, Signorini S, Gori M. The vision of dreams: from ontogeny to dream engineering in blindness. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(8):2051-2062.

What about dreams? State of the art and open questions.

SummarySeveral studies have tried to identify the neurobiological bases of dream experiences, nevertheless some questions are still at the centre of the debate. Here, we summarise the main open issues concerning the neuroscientific study of dreaming. After overcoming the rapid eye movement (REM) ‐ non‐REM (NREM) sleep dichotomy, investigations have focussed on the specific functional or structural brain features predicting dream experience. On the one hand, some results underlined that specific trait‐like factors are associated with higher dream recall frequency. On the other hand, the electrophysiological milieu preceding dream report upon awakening is a crucial state‐like factor influencing the subsequent recall. Furthermore, dreaming is strictly related to waking experiences. Based on the continuity hypothesis, some findings reveal that dreaming could be modulated through visual, olfactory, or somatosensory stimulations. Also, it should be considered that the indirect access to dreaming remains an intrinsic limitation. Recent findings have revealed a greater concordance between parasomnia‐like events and dream contents. This means that parasomnia episodes might be an expression of the ongoing mental sleep activity and could represent a viable direct access to dream experience. Finally, we provide a picture on nightmares and emphasise the possible role of oneiric activity in psychotherapy. Overall, further efforts in dream science are needed (a) to develop a uniform protocol to study dream experience, (b) to introduce and integrate advanced techniques to better understand whether dreaming can be manipulated, (c) to clarify the relationship between parasomnia events and dreaming, and (d) to determine the clinical valence of dreams.

Adverse Childhood Experiences Are Associated With Adult Dream Content: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

BackgroundDreams can be affected by recent life events and long-term life experiences. Previous evidence has shown that childhood adverse experiences are associated with sleep quality and dream experiences.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the relationship between childhood adverse experiences and dream content in adults.Participants and SettingA total of 163 participants without current or past physical or mental disorders aged between 18 and 35 were screened in the hospital. Among them, 120 subjects who completed a dream content record at home and whose anxiety and depression levels and sleep quality were within the normal range were included in the data analysis.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted from June 2017 to December 2019. Dream content for 10 consecutive days was recorded by the participants and coded by the Hall and Van de Castle coding system. Childhood adversity was assessed by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). In the end, 719 dreams out of 626 nights for 120 participants (44 female) were included in the data analysis, gender differences between groups were analyzed using t-tests or U tests, and Spearman’s partial correlation and multiple linear regression were used to investigate the relationship between childhood trauma and dream content.ResultsChildhood adversity was associated with characters, friendly interactions, and objects in dream content. Regression models of childhood adversity predicting characters and objects in dream content were constructed. There were no gender differences in general demographic data, sleep quality, emotional state, childhood adversity, dream recall frequency, or dream content.ConclusionChildhood adversity is associated with adult dream content.