Dream Affect Research Articles

Dreaming in patients with cancer and their partners-an underestimated factor for quality of life?

Sleep disorders are prevalent among patients with cancer and their caregivers as well, affecting their quality of life. But the relationship between sleep quality, dream experiences, and life satisfaction in patients with cancer and their partners is understudied. The present research aimed to quantitatively investigate the dream experiences of oncology patients and explore the interdependence between patients and their partners in terms of dream experiences and life satisfaction. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted with 101 dyads, completing a questionnaire assessing demographic and illness-related data, dream experiences, sleep quality, and life satisfaction. Inferential statistical tests and actor-partner interdependence models were used to analyse the data. Both patients with cancer and their partners reported on average a significant decrease in sleep quality since the cancer diagnosis and for both dyad members significant dreaming predictors for life satisfaction were found. Namely, a positive association for dream stability in patients, and a positive association for positive dream affect as well as a negative association for negative dream affect in partners. Regarding the question of interdependence, dream intensity exhibited a significant group-specific partner effect, but no overall partner effect, leading to inconclusive results that call for more studies in this field. The study suggests that dreaming may affect life satisfaction beyond sleep quality and underscores the significance of acknowledging dream experiences as potential influencers of quality of life in patients with cancer. Additionally, the study stands out for its examination of the role of partners in dyadic dependency, emphasising the importance of understanding their influence on patients' experiences.

COVID-19 on mind: Daily worry about the coronavirus is linked to negative affect experienced during mind-wandering and dreaming.

Despite a surge of studies on the effects of COVID-19 on our well-being, we know little about how the pandemic is reflected in people's spontaneous thoughts and experiences, such as mind-wandering (or daydreaming) during wakefulness and dreaming during sleep. We investigated whether and how COVID-19-related general concern, anxiety, and daily worry are associated with the daily fluctuation of the affective quality of mind-wandering and dreaming, and to what extent these associations can be explained by poor sleep quality. We used ecological momentary assessment by asking participants to rate the affect they experienced during mind-wandering and dreaming in daily logs over a 2-week period. Our preregistered analyses based on 1,755 dream logs from 172 individuals and 1,496 mind-wandering logs from 152 individuals showed that, on days when people reported higher levels of negative affect and lower levels of positive affect during mind-wandering, they experienced more worry. Only daily sleep quality was associated with affect experienced during dreaming at the within-person level: on nights with poorer sleep quality people reported experiencing more negative and less positive affect in dreams and were more likely to experience nightmares. However, at the between-person level, individuals who experienced more daily COVID-19 worry during the study period also reported experiencing more negative affect during mind-wandering and during dreaming. As such, the continuity between daily and nightly experiences seems to rely more on stable trait-like individual differences in affective processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The modulation of emotional memory consolidation by dream affect

IntroductionResearch in the field of cognitive neuroscience has focused on the role of sleep in various neurocognitive processes such as memory consolidation. However, an area that has not been adequately researched is the role of dreaming in this memory process. This study aimed to determine the relationship between affect experienced in dreams and emotional memory consolidation. Considering that REM dreams are laden with emotion and that emotion enhances memory, one possibility is that dream affect could also play a role in emotional memory consolidation. We hypothesised that greater dream-related affect would be associated with greater memory retention of emotional but not neutral information.Methods126 healthy participants, aged 18–35, were recruited for the online study, of which 103 participants had valid data (female: n =73). On the night of the study, participants viewed a series of pictures from the South African Affective Picture System (SA-APS) in an online session. Afterwards, they verbally recalled as many pictures as possible. The following morning, they were asked to recall any dreams and rate the emotional intensity of their dreams. Participants then again verbally recalled all the pictures that they could remember from the previous night.ResultsContrary to the prediction, dream-related affect, regardless of valence, did not predict memory consolidation of positive or negative information. Instead, increases in dream-related affect, and especially anxiety were predictive of better memory retention of all information. The findings also showed that an increase in negative affect in dreams predicted better memory retention of negative information.DiscussionOur results suggest that dream affect is an important modulator of memory consolidation processes occurring during sleep. Furthermore, increased negative affect may indicate which experiences are salient and require consolidation to form long-lasting memories that can guide future behaviour.ConclusionThese findings have implications for psychiatric disorders, such as major depression, which is characterised by negative affect and increased memory sensitivity to negative stimuli.

Does chronic pain influence our dreams? A dream content analytical approach

Abstract Background To date, the relationship between frequent nightmares, chronic pain, waking-life distress and sleep quality is still unclear. Previous research has shown that chronic pain patients reported more frequent nightmares and critical life events compared to a control group. Moreover, patients reported pain dreams similar to pain in their waking-life, whereas controls reported pain dreams sparsely. Objective The aim of this study was to replicate these findings and to analyze the dream content of chronic pain patients in more detail. Methods A sample of chronic pain patients and healthy control individuals, matched in age and gender, were recruited. All participants completed psychometric questionnaires and a narrative dream diary for 14 consecutive days. Results Nightmare frequency, nightmare distress, pain dreams and distress caused by life events were increased in chronic pain patients compared to the control group. In addition, the patient group reported significantly more negative and aggressive dream contents and physical sensations in their dreams than the controls. These findings replicate continuity between waking-life and dream experiences concerning pain sensation. Distress caused by critical life events also played an important role in negative dream affect and pain perception.

Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation.

There is increasing evidence that sleep plays an important role in affective processing. However, it is unclear whether dreaming-the subjective experiences we have during sleep-also serves an affect regulation function. Here, we investigated the within-person relationship between negative affect experienced in dreams and next-day waking affect level, affect reactivity, and affect regulation. For 5 days, 40 participants reported their dreams and rated their dream affect and post-sleep waking affect level upon morning awakening. Thereafter, they performed an affect reactivity and regulation task which involved viewing neutral and negative pictures with the instruction either to simply view the pictures or to down-regulate the affect evoked by these pictures. Multilevel regression analyses showed that the more negative affect people experienced in their dreams at night, the more negative affect and the less positive affect they reported the next morning. However, negative dream affect was associated neither with affect reactivity to the pictures nor with the ability to down-regulate negative affect in response to these pictures. In fact, Bayesian analyses favored the null hypotheses. These findings fail to provide support for the affect regulation function of dreaming and, instead, speak for affective continuity between dreaming and post-sleep wakefulness.

Schizotypy unfolding into the night? Schizotypal traits and daytime psychotic-like experiences predict negative and salient dreams

Symptoms of insomnia and frequent nightmares are prevalent in psychotic disorders, and are associated with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in the non-clinical population. Whereas the role of impaired sleep in psychosis was extensively examined by longitudinal and interventional approaches, studies on the association between psychosis and dream quality are scarce, and mainly cross-sectional. We conducted a three-week long prospective study in a group of healthy adults (N = 55), assessed schizotypal traits, daily PLEs, and the emotional quality of dreams recalled in the morning (N = 490). We extracted the latent factors of schizotypal traits and dream emotions, and examined the predictive value of trait-and state-like variables on day-to-day reports of PLEs and dream quality. PLEs reported in the evening predicted emotionally more negative and salient dream reports the following morning. On the other hand, the quality of dreams were not predictive of PLEs reported later during the day. Schizotypal personality traits were differentially associated with dream quality: Introvertive Anhedonia, Cognitive Disorganization, and General-Disorganized schizotypy were linked to more negative dream valence, whereas Unusual Experiences were associated with more salient dreams. Our findings highlight the relevance of the multidimensional nature of schizotypal traits, the role of different facets of schizotypy in daytime and nocturnal mental experiences, and the day-to-day associations between PLEs and dream affect. General scientific summaries (GSS)The aim of the study was to examine the temporal associations between psychotic-like experiences and dream emotions, taking into account the trait factors of schizotypy. Psychotic-like experiences during the evening hours predicted reporting more negative and salient dreams the following morning, and schizotypal personality traits were differentially associated with the dimensions of dream emotions.

Dream Recall/Affect and Cortisol: An Exploratory Study.

The effect of cortisol on dreams has been scarcely studied. The aim of this exploratory study was to assess the possible effect of cortisol levels on dream recall/affect, considering, in female subjects, their menstrual cycle phase. Fifteen men and fifteen women were recruited. Saliva samples were used for the detection of cortisol levels. Participants were instructed to provide four saliva samples, during three consecutive days. After awakening, on the second and third day, they were asked whether they could recall the previous night’s dreams and whether these were pleasant or unpleasant. Female subjects followed this procedure twice: firstly, during the luteal phase and, secondly, during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Subjects with higher evening or higher morning cortisol levels tended to show increased dream recall; a non-statistically significant association between morning cortisol levels and positive dream affect was also found. This association acquired statistical significance for salivary morning cortisol levels exceeding the upper normal level of 19.1 nmol/L (OR: 4.444, 95% CI: 1.108–17.830, p-value: 0.039). No connection between menstrual cycle stages and dream recall/affect was detected. In conclusion, cortisol may be a crucial neuromodulator, affecting dream recall and content. Therefore, its effects on sleep and dreams should be further studied.

Will I Feel This in my Dreams? Examining Temporal Associations between Daytime and Dream Affect

Abstract Despite the theory that dreams function to process emotions, few studies have examined how emotional experiences during daytime (“daytime affect”) are associated with the emotional tone of dreams (“dream affect”) that night, and vice versa. This study examined bidirectional associations between dream affect and daytime positive and negative affect. Participants were 84 nurses who completed two weeks of ecological momentary assessments. If participants remembered the previous night’s dreams (nparticipants=68; ndays=391), they reported the dream’s emotional tone upon waking (‘0’=very negative to ‘100’=very positive). Participants also responded to the Positive and Negative Affect Scale three times/day. Multilevel modeling simultaneously tested two temporal directions (daytime affect→dream affect, dream affect→daytime affect) at the within- and between-person levels. After adjusting for socio-demographic and work characteristics, at the within-person level, dream affect was more positive than usual on nights following more positive daytime affect (B=0.25, p=.003). In the other temporal direction, dream affect was not associated with the following day’s positive affect. At the between-person level, nurses who reported more positive dream affect also reported more positive daytime affect (B=0.24, p=.025). No associations emerged with negative affect. Findings suggest that daytime affect is associated with the emotional tone of that night’s dreams, but only in the context of positive affect. Importantly, negative affect was relatively low in this sample, so different patterns may emerge for people more prone to negative affect. Overall, these novel findings support the theory that dreams serve to process emotions, providing insight into the mystery of the function of dreams.

Will I Feel This in my Dreams? Examining Temporal Associations between Daytime and Dream Affect

The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges and opportunities for research. This is especially true for research on essential workers, such as hospital nurses. In adaptation to the pandemic, the current study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a fully remote study to collect data on psychological and behavioral measures such as daily stress and sleep, utilizing ecological momentary assessments (EMA) and sleep actigraphy. Our remote study protocol was conducted through a web platform that provided detailed video and written instructions regarding the study and facilitated virtual onboarding meetings with participants. Outpatient day shift nurses (n=86) responded to a background survey, 84 of whom completed 14 days of EMA and sleep actigraphy. Feasibility was assessed by compliance rates to the 14-day study protocol. Acceptability was assessed by analyzing qualitative feedback provided during onboarding meetings (n=82). The compliance rates of EMA (91.8%) and actigraphy (97.9%) were high. The EMA compliance was higher than that from a pre-COVID, non-remote study of inpatient day shift nurses from the same hospital (86.6%, p=.030). Themes from content analysis were mostly positive with 51.2% reporting “easy, clear, simple onboarding process” and 16.3% reporting “helpful website”. Only six participants provided solely negative feedback (e.g., “communication problems” or “technical difficulties/preferences”). Our remote study protocol was feasible and well-accepted by nurses. A similar methodology could be used in studies on broader healthcare workers and those caring for aging populations to better understand their unique challenges and develop effective strategies to help them, both during and after the pandemic.

Changes in dream features across the first and second waves of the Covid‐19 pandemic

SummaryResearch during the Covid‐19 pandemic has highlighted its significant impact on dreaming. Here we address changes in dream features both during the first wave, when the Italian government imposed a total lockdown, and the second wave (autumn 2020), when a partial lockdown was effected. In April 2020 (total lockdown), 1,622 participants (Mage = 34.1 ± 13.6 years; 1171F) completed an online survey including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a set of questions on dream features and their possible changes relative to the month preceding the lockdown (pre‐total lockdown). In November 2020 (partial lockdown), 214 participants (Mage = 36.78 ± 14.2 years; 159F) from the previous sample completed the same survey. Approximately half of the subjects reported increased or decreased dream frequency (30.5% and 21.8%), length (27.1% and 15.8%) and vividness (31.5% and 17.1%) during total lockdown as well as during partial lockdown (frequency: 30.3% and 13.5%; length: 23.3% and 12.6%; vividness: 31.6% and 24.1%). Dream affect became significantly more negative in total lockdown relative to pre‐total lockdown and in partial lockdown relative to pre‐partial lockdown (both p < .001). Both in total lockdown and partial lockdown, increased negative dream emotionality significantly predicted changes in dream frequency, length and vividness, and was significantly predicted, in turn, by worsened sleep quality. Our data confirm that dream features are significantly affected by major life changes such as those imposed by a pandemic. The fact that between lockdowns negative dream affect returned almost to baseline level suggests that dream emotionality is closely related to lifestyle and wake‐time emotional changes. Also, our findings point to a modulating role of sleep quality on dream emotionality.

191 Dream features of the Italian population across the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

IntroductionThe Italian government has responded to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (autumn 2020) with a partial lockdown (PL). Here we aim to investigate the effects of the PL on dream features in the Italian population and to follow up on previous data collected during the total lockdown (TL) effected during the first wave of the pandemic (spring 2020).MethodsUsing a longitudinal approach, 214 participants (Mage=36.78±14.2y; 159F) who had participated in a previous survey (April 2020 – TL) completed the same online survey from November 10th to December 1st (PL). The questionnaires administered included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and a set of specific ad hoc questions on dream features (frequency, length, vividness, emotional tone, relation of content to the current health emergency) and their possible changes relative to the month preceding the lockdown, resulting in four time points (pre-TL, TL, pre-PL, PL).ResultsFrequency and length of dreams significantly increased from pre-PL to PL (both p’s<.01), while no difference emerged for vividness. As in TL, almost 30% of the subjects reported having COVID-19-related dreams during PL and, among these, 51% reported to face, in these dreams, problematic situations similar to those of their daily life. Both PSQI and dream negative emotionality scores significantly increased from pre-TL to TL, decreased in pre-PL and increased again in PL, indicating a parallel worsening of sleep quality and dream emotionality with both lockdowns. Dream negative emotionality in PL also showed positive correlations with PSQI scores and with negative mood, stress levels, general fear and fear about the COVID-19.ConclusionIn line with the continuity hypothesis on the relationships between dreaming and the wake state, our data confirm that dream features are significantly and immediately affected by major life changes such as those brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions. Interestingly, dream emotionality and subjective sleep quality show a parallel profile across the different time points, suggesting the possible role of sleep quality as a modulating factor on dream affect.Support (if any)N/A

The Effects of Sleep Quality on Dream and Waking Emotions.

Despite the increasing interest in sleep and dream-related processes of emotion regulation, their reflection into waking and dream emotional experience remains unclear. We have previously described a discontinuity between wakefulness and dreaming, with a prevalence of positive emotions in wakefulness and negative emotions during sleep. Here we aim to investigate whether this profile may be affected by poor sleep quality. Twenty-three ‘Good Sleepers’ (GS) and 27 ‘Poor Sleepers’ (PS), identified through the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) cut-off score, completed three forms of the modified Differential Emotions Scale, assessing, respectively, the frequency of 22 emotions over the past 2 weeks, their intensity during dreaming and during the previous day. The ANOVA revealed a different pattern of emotionality between groups: GS showed high positive emotionality in wakefulness (both past 2 weeks and 24 h) with a significant shift to negative emotionality in dreams, while PS showed evenly distributed emotional valence across all three conditions. No significant regression model emerged between waking and dream affect. In the frame of recent hypotheses on the role of dreaming in emotion regulation, our findings suggest that the different day/night expression of emotions between groups depends on a relative impairment of sleep-related processes of affect regulation in poor sleepers. Moreover, these results highlight the importance of including sleep quality assessments in future dream studies.

Emotional Tone of Dreams and Daily Affect

One theoretical function of dreams is emotion processing. However, few studies have examined how daily emotions in waking life (i.e., daytime affect) affect the emotional tone of dreams (i.e., dream affect) that night, and vice versa. This study examined daily bidirectional associations between dream affect and daytime positive and negative affect. Participants were 61 nurses who completed 2-weeks of ecological momentary assessments. If participants remembered the previous night’s dreams (nparticipants=50; ndays=268), they reported the dream’s emotional tone upon waking (‘0’=very negative to ‘100’=very positive). Participants also responded to a short-version of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale three times/day. Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate two temporal directions (dream affect→ daytime affect or daytime affect→ dream affect) at the within- and between-person levels. After adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, at the within-person level, daily positive affect was higher and daily negative affect was lower than usual on days following more positive dream affect (B=0.19, p<.05; B=-0.26, p<.05, respectively). When we added the other temporal direction, today’s positive or negative affect was not associated with dream affect that night. At the between-person level, nurses who reported more positive dream affect also reported more positive daytime affect (B=0.52, p<.01), but not less negative daytime affect (B=-0.34, p>.10). Findings suggest that dream affect is predictive of daily affect, but not the other way around. Future studies could further examine if emotions closer to sleep are more strongly associated with dream affect to motivate more precisely-timed affect interventions.

An exploration of employee dreams: The dream-based overnight carryover of emotional experiences at work

ObjectiveWe sought to explore the manner in which daily challenge and hindrance stressors at work may be associated with mood the next day, through the mediating mechanisms of presleep rumination and moods experienced while asleep during dreams. MethodsA daily diary study in which 94 adults with full-time jobs completed 2 surveys per day for 2 work weeks. Each morning, participants reported the degree to which they engaged in rumination before sleep the previous night, the affective tone of their dreams, and their mood at that moment. Each evening participants reported their experiences of challenge and hindrance stressors at work that day. ResultsHindrance stressors were positively related to next-morning negative affect via the effects of rumination and negative affect in dreams. Challenge stressors negatively related to positive affect in the morning, via rumination and lowered positive affect in dreams. These results occurred above and beyond the effects of sleep quantity, sleep quality, and several other time-based control variables. ConclusionsDreams play an important role in how work stressors which are experienced in a given workday are associated with mood the next morning.

Relationships between Dream and Previous Wake Emotions Assessed through the Italian Modified Differential Emotions Scale.

Despite the increasing interest in sleep and dream-related processes of emotion regulation, their reflection into wake and dream emotional experience remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assess dream emotions and their relationships with wake emotions through the modified Differential Emotions Scale (Fredrickson, 2003), which includes a broad array of both positive and negative emotions. The scale has been first validated on 212 healthy Italian participants, in two versions: a WAKE-2wks form, assessing the frequency of 22 emotions over the past 2 weeks, and a WAKE-24hr form, assessing their intensity over the past 24 h. Fifty volunteers from the wider sample completed the WAKE-24hr mDES for several days until a dream was recalled, and dream emotions were self-reported using the same scale. A bifactorial structure was confirmed for both mDES forms, which also showed good validity and reliability. Though Positive and Negative Affect (average intensity of positive and negative items, PA, and NA, respectively) were balanced in dreams, specific negative emotions prevailed; rmANOVA showed a different pattern (prevalence of PA and positive emotions) in wake (both WAKE-2wks and WAKE-24hr), with a decrease of PA and an increase of NA in the dream compared to previous wake. No significant regression model emerged between waking and dream affect, and exploratory analyses revealed a stable proportion of PA and NA (with prevailing PA) over the 3 days preceding the dream. Our findings highlight a discontinuity between wake and dream affect and suggest that positive and negative emotions experienced during wake may undertake distinct sleep-related regulation pathways.

Predicting the affective tone of everyday dreams: A prospective study of state and trait variables

Although emotions are reported in a large majority of dreams, little is known about the factors that account for night-to-night and person-to-person variations in people’s experience of dream affect. We investigated the relationship between waking trait and state variables and dream affect by testing multilevel models intended to predict the affective valence of people’s everyday dreams. Participants from the general population completed measures of personality and trauma history followed by a three-week daily journal in which they noted dream recall, valence of dreamed emotions and level of perceived stress for the day as well as prior to sleep onset. Within-subject effects accounted for most of the explained variance in the reported valence of dream affect. Trait anxiety was the only variable that significantly predicted dream emotional valence at the between-subjects level. In addition to highlighting the need for more fine-grained measures in this area of research, our results point to methodological limitations and biases associated with retrospective estimates of general dream affect and bring into focus state variables that may best explain observed within-subject variance in emotions experienced in everyday dreams.

Assessing Individual Differences in the Affective Experience of Dreams: The Jena Dream Inventory-Affect Scales (JeDI-A).

The study reports on the validation of a new instrument for the assessment of emotional experiences in dreams. The Jena Dream Inventory-Affect (JeDI-A) contains 21 items and 3 scales, positive dream affect, negative dream affect, and dream intensity, providing a differentiated yet economic assessment of dream affect. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses in a sample of university students (N = 426) and a clinical sample of patients with sleep disorders (N = 149) supported factorial validity and measurement invariance, high temporal stability (over 1 year and 9 months in the students and patients, respectively), convergent and discriminant validity regarding established measures of dream affect and the Big Five, and criterion validity regarding subjective well-being. Cross-lagged panel models showed reciprocal longitudinal effects between dream affect and waking affect. We conclude that the JeDI-A is a valid instrument for differentiated investigations of individual differences in dream affect in clinical and nonclinical populations.

EEG Frontal Alpha Asymmetry and Dream Affect: Alpha Oscillations over the Right Frontal Cortex during REM Sleep and Presleep Wakefulness Predict Anger in REM Sleep Dreams.

Affective experiences are central not only to our waking life but also to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreams. Despite our increasing understanding of the neural correlates of dreaming, we know little about the neural correlates of dream affect. Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) is considered a marker of affective states and traits as well as affect regulation in the waking state. Here, we explored whether FAA during REM sleep and during evening resting wakefulness is related to affective experiences in REM sleep dreams. EEG recordings were obtained from 17 human participants (7 men) who spent 2 nights in the sleep laboratory. Participants were awakened 5 min after the onset of every REM stage after which they provided a dream report and rated their dream affect. Two-minute preawakening EEG segments were analyzed. Additionally, 8 min of evening presleep and morning postsleep EEG were recorded during resting wakefulness. Mean spectral power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) and corresponding FAA were calculated over the frontal (F4-F3) sites. Results showed that FAA during REM sleep, and during evening resting wakefulness, predicted ratings of dream anger. This suggests that individuals with greater alpha power in the right frontal hemisphere may be less able to regulate (i.e., inhibit) strong affective states, such as anger, in dreams. Additionally, FAA was positively correlated across wakefulness and REM sleep. Together, these findings imply that FAA may serve as a neural correlate of affect regulation not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We experience emotions not only during wakefulness but also during dreaming. Despite our increasing understanding of the neural correlates of dreaming, we know little about the neural correlates of dream emotions. Here we used electroencephalography to explore how frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA)-the relative difference in alpha power between the right and left frontal cortical areas that is associated with emotional processing and emotion regulation in wakefulness-is related to dream emotions. We show that individuals with greater FAA (i.e., greater right-sided alpha power) during rapid eye movement sleep, and during evening wakefulness, experience more anger in dreams. FAA may thus reflect the ability to regulate emotions not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state.

Peace of mind and anxiety in the waking state are related to the affective content of dreams

Waking mental well-being is assumed to be tightly linked to sleep and the affective content of dreams. However, empirical research is scant and has mostly focused on ill-being by studying the dreams of people with psychopathology. We explored the relationship between waking well-being and dream affect by measuring not only symptoms of ill-being but also different types and components of well-being. Importantly, this is the first time peace of mind was investigated as a distinct aspect of well-being in a Western sample and in relation to dream content. Healthy participants completed a well-being questionnaire, followed by a three-week daily dream diary and ratings of dream affect. Multilevel analyses showed that peace of mind was related to positive dream affect, whereas symptoms of anxiety were related to negative dream affect. Moreover, waking measures were better related to affect expressed in dream reports rather than participants’ self-ratings of dream affect. We propose that whereas anxiety may reflect affect dysregulation in waking and dreaming, peace of mind reflects enhanced affect regulation in both states of consciousness. Therefore, dream reports may possibly serve as markers of mental health. Finally, our study shows that peace of mind complements existing conceptualizations and measures of well-being.

Use of varenicline in smokeless tobacco cessation influences sleep quality and dream recall frequency but not dream affect

ObjectiveVarenicline (VCL) treatment has become popular as a part of smoking-cessation therapies, even though its possible implications in neuropsychiatric adverse events include abnormal sleep and nightmares. Our study is the first aimed at prospectively investigating changes in sleep and dream measures across such treatment by using a one week sleep diary and collecting dream recall (DR). MethodsThirty-eight smokers participated in two different effective smoking-cessation programs: 25 subjects received VCL, 13 subjects received nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Participants were requested to fill out a sleep diary and audio-record dreams for one week, both at baseline assessment (T0) and after two weeks from the beginning of treatment (T1). Differences in sleep and dream measures were tested using mixed Analysis of Covariance with time (T0 vs T1) as a within-subject factor and group (VCL vs NRT) as a between-subject factor, considering age as a covariant. ResultsSleep measures showed a significant increase in the number of awakenings in the VCL group at T1 compared to T0. The VCL group reported an increase in DR rate at T1. These sleep and dream measures were intercorrelated, but only at T1 and during VCL treatment. ConclusionsThe correlations between DR rate and sleep fragmentation measures underlined that VCL cannot be considered as a direct cause of abnormal dreams. Comparisons between groups cast some doubts on the actual existence of abnormal dreams, at least as compared to the NRT group. Our results are consistent with the ‘activation models’, showing that numerous DRs in the VCL group may be related to lighter sleep.