Dream Content Research Articles

0133 Adapting and validating a modern situational measure for dream content and experience

Abstract Introduction Dream content is typically measured using self-reports which draw heavily on psychoanalytic theory. There is a need for a modern, reliable, validated, and comprehensive measure of dream content and experience. The DIAMONDS taxonomy has been developed and extensively validated by social/personality psychologists to assess psychologically salient features of waking situations. According to the continuity hypothesis, dreams reflect waking life; thus, this measure may also provide valuable information for dream content. We are adapting and validating this measure for dream content using self-reports and external raters. Methods We have begun an extensive construct validation process to adapt the DIAMONDS for dreams, including an extensive literature search and the development of a large item pool. Then, in a first preliminary study (N = 55), we examined the substantive validity by having an external rater code participants’ dream narratives using the adapted DIAMONDS. Next, in a second preliminary study from an online sample (N = 74), participants self-rated their own dream narratives using the adapted DIAMONDS. Results We developed a preliminary item pool (41 items) covering five proposed dream-specific factors: dream continuity, plausibility, clarity, memory degradation, and physiology. These items were added to the existing DIAMONDS. Results of the first preliminary study suggest all original DIAMONDS items have appropriate distributional properties when used to assess dream content; 20 of the newly developed items had abnormal skew and/or kurtosis. Items were modified; results of the second study show an improvement in the distributional properties of the adapted items. Notably, participants in the second study did not report an element of their dreams as being missing from the adapted DIAMONDS measure. Conclusion Thus far, we have gathered preliminary substantive validity evidence for the adapted DIAMONDS for dream content. Moving forward, we will evaluate whether the adapted measure predicts next day affect in a larger sample (predictive validity). In the long term, we hope to gather enough substantive, structural, and external validity evidence to validate the adapted DIAMONDS for dream content and experience. Support (if any) P30 GM114748

0662 Digital sleep-health surveillance: Population nightmare frequency is observable in social media

Abstract Introduction Nightmares are a critical component of multidimensional sleep health. Frequent nightmare recallers suffer reduced sleep length, depressed mood, and are more likely to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder in the future. Reliable population estimates of nightmare frequency are difficult to obtain and often restricted to rigid timepoints (e.g., once per year). Thus, there is a need for low-cost methods to track population levels of nightmare frequency and their dynamic changes over time. In the current study, we tracked dream content and nightmare frequency using a popular new approach – digital health surveillance – that analyzes language of public and freely-accessible social media posts to track population characteristics. Methods To evaluate whether social media could detect known changes in population sleep health, we extracted posts from r/Dreaming, a popular subreddit dedicated to dream sharing. Prior survey studies have shown a reliable increase in nightmare frequency during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we quantified the amount of nightmares posted on Reddit surrounding the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of a COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Nightmares were identified using a word-search algorithm that identified nightmare-related words in a post title. Nightmare frequency was compared before and after the WHO declaration using a chi-squared analysis. Results The percentage of dreams posted on Reddit that were identified as nightmares was higher after the WHO declaration than before (p < .05). Additionally, the amount of anxiety in all dreams posted on Reddit was higher after the WHO declaration than before (p < .05). Weekly change in dream anxiety was positively correlated with the percentage of COVID-19 news headlines (p < .05). Conclusion We observed an increase in nightmares shared on Reddit immediately following the WHO’s declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. This novel approach to tracking nightmares might offer the field of sleep medicine a low-cost and real-time system for monitoring population sleep health. Other recent work suggests this method might be viable for tracking other components of sleep health. Support (if any)

Theory of the remission process of schizophrenia (Nakai).

Hisao Nakai (1934-2022) surprised many experts with his prolific publication of papers ranging from meticulous therapeutic engagement and observations to original research. The "theory of the remission process of schizophrenia" is a representative example of Nakai's research and theories. The significance of Nakai's theory of the remission process is that it let the world know about the existence of schizophrenia's remission process, which had not been previously recognised. Additionally, Nakai's discovery of the "critical period" was significant and his detailed description of the same, which marks the beginning of the remission process, is widely considered to be fundamental. Nakai closely followed common phenomena that appeared accidentally, and he plotted the reactions of the autonomic nervous system, patient's dream content, and drawing content on a chart to show, for the first time, the clear emergence of a "critical period," and demonstrated the crucial role of the remission process. Nakai explained how the process progresses sequentially from the "critical period" to the "early remission period" and the "late remission period." He identified many specific indicators and discovered a great significance in innovative therapeutic engagement in each of these periods. Nakai's findings are supported by meticulous clinical observations and are free from simplifications that stem from simple theorization. In particular, close observation of the remission process was conducted with full engagement and concern of the therapist, without which, the remission process would not have been visible.

Targeted dream incubation at sleep onset increases post-sleep creative performance

The link between dreams and creativity has been a topic of intense speculation. Recent scientific findings suggest that sleep onset (known as N1) may be an ideal brain state for creative ideation. However, the specific link between N1 dream content and creativity has remained unclear. To investigate the contribution of N1 dream content to creative performance, we administered targeted dream incubation (a protocol that presents auditory cues at sleep onset to introduce specific themes into dreams) and collected dream reports to measure incorporation of the selected theme into dream content. We then assessed creative performance using a set of three theme-related creativity tasks. Our findings show enhanced creative performance and greater semantic distance in task responses following a period of N1 sleep as compared to wake, corroborating recent work identifying N1 as a creative sweet spot and offering novel evidence for N1 enabling a cognitive state with greater associative divergence. We further demonstrate that successful N1 dream incubation enhances creative performance more than N1 sleep alone. To our knowledge, this is the first controlled experiment investigating a direct role of incubating dream content in the enhancement of creative performance.

Continued Validation of the RBD Symptom Severity Scale (RBDSSS) in Participants of the North American Prodromal Synucleinopathy (NAPS) Consortium (P6-13.004)

Continued Validation of the RBD Symptom Severity Scale (RBDSSS) in Participants of the North American Prodromal Synucleinopathy (NAPS) Consortium (P6-13.004)

A meta-analysis of the relation between dream content and memory consolidation.

The frequent appearance of newly learned information in dreams suggests that dream content is influenced by memory consolidation. Many studies have tested this hypothesis by asking whether dreaming about a learning task is associated with improved memory, but results have been inconsistent. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine the strength of the association between learning-related dreams and post-sleep memory improvement. We searched the literature for studies that (1) trained participants on a pre-sleep learning task and then tested their memory after sleep, and (2) associated post-sleep memory improvement with the extent to which dreams incorporated learning task content. Sixteen studies qualified for inclusion, which together reported 45 effects. Integrating across effects, we report a strong and statistically significant association between task-related dreaming and memory performance (SMD = 0.51 [95% CI 0.28, 0.74], p < 0.001). Among studies using polysomnography, this relationship was statistically significant for dreams collected from non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep (n = 10) but not for dreams collected from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (n = 12). There was a significant association between dreaming and memory for all types of learning tasks studied. This meta-analysis provides further evidence that dreaming about a learning task is associated with improved memory performance, suggesting that dream content may be an indication of memory consolidation. Furthermore, we report preliminary evidence that the relationship between dreaming and memory may be stronger in NREM sleep compared to REM.

The Indirect Effect of Depression between Nightmares and Well-Being in Lebanese Patients with Schizophrenia

Background. Because nightmares seem to be associated with depression in schizophrenia, detecting them early in therapeutic practice might be critical to ensuring effective avoidance of the development of depressive symptomatology. This helps promote well-being and improve the patient’s quality of life and illness prognosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the indirect effect of depression between nightmares and well-being in a Lebanese sample of patients with schizophrenia. Method. This monocentric cross-sectional study, conducted in July 2022, enrolled patients with chronic schizophrenia admitted to the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross. Data were collected from a total of 148 participants through face-to-face interviews. The questionnaire included a nightmares measure, PSYRATS, Calgary depression scale for schizophrenia, PTSD checklist for DSM-5, the digit span subset, and WHO-5Well-Being Index. Results. The presence of nightmares was significantly associated with more depression, whereas higher depression was significantly associated with lower well-being. It is noteworthy that the presence of nightmares was not directly associated with well-being. Conclusion. Nightmares lead indirectly to lower well-being in schizophrenia patients, with depression serving as a mediating factor in this association. This suggests that interventions aiming at improving dream content may also have a beneficial effect in reducing depression in schizophrenia leading therefore to better well-being of the patients.

Kumlbúa þáttr, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland

<i>Kumlbúa þáttr</i>, an Eschatological Event: The Traumatic Ontology of Being in Time in Medieval Iceland

Connection of individual typological features of personality with nature of dreams

Objective. To study the influence of the temperament, anxiety level, intro-extraversion index, the nature of emotions, the level of happiness and the presence of pathologies of sleep physiology in the individual on the frequency of dream production and their figurative content.&#x0D; Materials and methods. The research involved 100 respondents students of E.A. Vagner Perm State Medical University, the average age was 22.5 4.5 years. The study was conducted through anonymous questionnaires using the following personality questionnaires and psychological tests: Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Comprehensive Sociometric Test: Emotions, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), Comprehensive Test for Detection of Sleep Disorders.&#x0D; Results. It was found that in 37,7 % of cases out of 100,0 %, the imaginative content of dreams and the frequency of their production directly depend on the temperament of the individual, the level of anxiety affects dreams only in 50,0 % of cases out of 100,0 %. The intro-extraversion index has a significant impact on the nature of dreams and manifests its effect in 61,6 % out of 100,0 %. The complete dependence of the imaginative content of dreams on the quality of emotions is observed in 57.0 % of cases; inversely proportional dependence is noted in 43.0 % of cases. It was determined that the level of happiness has a natural effect on dreams in 66.0 % of cases. Sleep disorders can affect both negatively and positively the imaginative content of dreams and their quantitative production. Assessment of the multifactorial influence of the students' psycho-emotional state showed that the most important role in the cumulative effect on sleep and dreams is played by the level of anxiety and temperament.&#x0D; Conclusions. Changes in the parameters of dreams are a consequence of the multifactorial interaction of individual psychoemotional characteristics and typological characteristics of the personality. Determination of temperament and registration of the level of anxiety of the individual can contribute to the prediction of the overall picture of dreams for use in psychological and psychiatric practice.

Nightmares and bad dreams preceding suicidal behaviors

IntroductionSleep and circadian markers are of increasingly growing interest to help better predicting suicide. Indeed, specific sleep disorders and circadian rhythm disorders have been associated to suicidal behaviors, and the most replicated findings are insomnia and nightmares. Nevertheless, these interesting preliminary studies did not examine the chronology and trajectories of these dream contents’ alterations before a suicidal crisis.ObjectivesIn this context, we decided to perform a naturalistic study to better understand the characteristic of this population during suicidal crisis, and to evaluate their past dream contents. We aimed to distinguish in this phenomenology three different experiences: bad dreams, nightmares (i.e. awakening bad dreams), and suicidal scenarii during dreams. We hypothesized that these dream experiences may have different chronologies of emergence, and that individuals with dream alterations, compared to individuals without dream alterations, present with different clinical characteristics.MethodsThis naturalistic study included individuals hospitalized between January 2021 and May 2021 in a psychiatric post emergency unit for suicidal crisis (thoughts and attempts).ResultsThe 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 -awakening bad dreams- and 9 (22.5%) with suicidal scenarii during dreams. No differences were observed between the AD group versus no altered dream (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 scenarii were reported 45.2 days before (1.5 month). For the AD and ND population in suicidal crisis, 80% met at least one subtype of dream alterations, 40% had bad dreams and nightmares, and 17.5% had the 3 subtypes. The AD group, compared to ND, had significantly more family history of insomnia (p=0.046). Almost all patients (97.5%) had depressive symptoms (MADRS≥7; 82.5% had moderate to severe symptoms, MADRS≥20), 60% had insomnia (ISI&gt;14), 92.5% had altered sleep quality (PSQI&gt;5), and 57.5% reported sleepiness (ESS&gt;10).ConclusionsDream alterations and their progression could be readily assessed and may help to better identify prodromal signs of suicidal behaviors.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Outpatient management of REM sleep behavior disorder case in Brunner syndrome

IntroductionBrunner syndrome is a recessive X-linked disorder characterized by impulsive aggressiveness and mild mental retardation associated with Monoamine Oxidase – A (MAOA) deficiency (Brunner et al. Science 1993; 262 578-580).ObjectivesTo present a REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) case in a patient with Brunner syndrome.MethodsThe present study is a case report of a patient followed in our hospital’s outpatient care. We also searched for previous case reports of sleep disorders and other clinical features in Brunner syndrome using a pubmed query.ResultsA 46-year-old Spanish male, diagnosed with Brunner syndrome due to the mutation c.1438A&gt;G/iVS14-2 A&gt;G, a loss-of-function mutation in the X-linked MAOA gene. He suffers from mild mental retardation and psychotic disturbances treated with SSRI and antipsychotic drugs. The patient was referred to our outpatient care to assess his sleep abnormal behaviors. He had been presenting with episodes of sleep-related vocalization and complex motor behaviors during sleep for the last 3 years, correlating with dream mentation. His relatives recounted episodes of talking, screaming, gesturing, kicking, falling out of bed and crying during sleep. Dream content referred by the patient was often related to persecutions, attacks and fights.Polysomnography revealed vocalization and gesticulation during REM sleep compatible with the diagnosis of RBD. The addition of clonazepam to his treatment at doses of 1-3 mg per day achieved significant clinical response of the sleep disorder.ConclusionsThe clinical presentation suggested the diagnosis of RBD case in a patient with Brunner syndrome. Although sleep disorders are not one of the most important or frequent clinical features in Brunner syndrome, they are described in the literature and can significantly affect the patient’s quality of life. To our knowledge, this is the first report about clinical management of RBD case in Brunner syndrome.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Is REM Density a Measure of Arousal during Sleep?

Rapid eye movements (REMs), an expression of REM sleep phasic activity, occur against a stable background of cortical desynchronization and the absence of axial tone. The significance of REMs during the sleep period was initially attributed to the mental content of dreams, linking the REMs to the dream scenario. Although fascinating, the so-called "scanning hypothesis" has not been supported by consistent evidence, and thus an alternative hypothesis is necessary to understand REMs significance during sleep. Some data suggest that the frequency of REMs during the REM sleep period, known as REM density, might be related to sleep depth or arousal during sleep. REM density increases across the night concomitantly with the progressive reduction in sleep pressure, and consistently it is higher at the circadian time when arousal appears to be higher, and it is decreased in those conditions, such as after sleep deprivation, which produce increased sleep pressure. REM density is also increased in major affective disorders, and it has been suggested either as a risk factor to develop the illness or as a predictive index of response to drug treatment. Disfunction of the neurotransmitter systems involved in arousal mechanisms and wake/sleep control might underlie the altered REM density described in depression. Understanding of the REM density mechanisms could help to untangle functional significance and regulation of REM sleep. Following the seminal idea of Aserinsky that REM density is an index of sleep satiety, it may also provide a sensitive measure of sleep homeostasis in addition to, or even as an alternative to, the consolidated analysis of slow wave activity. REM density can also be utilized to explore those mechanisms which end sleep, and considered a physiological marker which indicate during sleep the "time to wake".

Dreams Shared on Social Networks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Tower of Babel or Noah's Ark?-A Group-Analytic Perspective.

Dream sharing is a universal practice, and various incentives have been identified, including emotional processing, emotional relief, and demands for containment. Shared dreams can contribute to an individual's understanding of social reality during traumatic and stressful events. The present study examined dreams shared on social network sites (SNS) during the first COVID-19 lockdown, applying a group-analytic approach. A qualitative dream content analysis conducted by a group of researchers analyzed 30 dreams shared on SNS, focusing on their contents, dominant emotions, and unique group processes. The dream content analysis yielded three meaningful and coherent themes: (1) dominant threats: enemy, danger, and COVID-19; (2) emotional fusion: confusion and despair alongside recovery and hope; and (3) group processes characterized by movement between being alone and being together. The results deepen our understanding of both unique social and psychological group processes and of people's main experiences and key psychological coping mechanisms in times of collective trauma and natural disasters. They also demonstrate the transformative potential of dreamtelling for individuals' coping experiences and building hope through the creative social relationships formed within SNS groups.

Gauging oneiromancy—the cognition of dream content and cultural transmission of (supernatural) divination

ABSTRACT Dreaming is often connected with religious ideas and enjoys distinct epistemic status as a source of trusted information for divinatory practices—oneiromancy. These tendencies suggest the existence of a distinct content affordance relevance for dream divination, hypothesized in the “CARDD theory.” CARDD theory predicts that dreams containing nightmarish and threatening content, omission of self-agency models, bizarre and counterintuitive content, and SA imagery enhance the proclivity for dream communication and divination. Drawing upon ethnographic research among Nepalese Hindus, the purpose of the present article is to extend assumptions from cognitive and cultural transmission analysis of divination to the subcase of dream research and divination. The specific aims are (1) to quantify and compare dream contents according to their prevalence as described in CARDD theory, and (2) to test CARDD theory against the assumption that the dream contents have affordance value and provide motivation for dream communication and divination. According to the present data, however, only omission of self-agency models in dream imagery was significantly shown to predict dream communication and divination—a result that supports the idea that the formal features of “ostensive detachment” (Boyer, 2020; Mercier & Boyer, 2021) are decisive factors in cultural transmission of divinatory practices.

Dreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic: Support for the threat simulation function of dreams.

Evolutionary theories suggest that dreams function as a world simulator of events that maximizes our ability to surmount social and threat-related challenges critical to survivorship and reproduction. Here, in contrast to the incorporation continuity hypothesis, we test the (1) social bias hypothesis, which states that dreams will overrepresent positive social interactions relative to waking life, (2) the mutually exclusive threat bias hypothesis, the idea that dream content will be negative relative to waking life, (3) the strengthening hypothesis, which states that dreams will rehearse more positive interactions with individuals the self is familiar with relative to waking life, and (4) the compensation hypothesis, which states that social contents in dreams increases during periods of social seclusion. Dream (n = 168) and wake (n = 184) reports were collected through a standardized online survey from 24 undergraduate students. Recalls were analyzed using the Social Content Scale. Generalized linear mixed effects models were used, and the following fixed-effects were considered for the study; the number of reports contributed, report state, biological sex, stress, social support, and media exposures. Results showed support for the threat bias hypothesis, we found that dreams were more negative and featured more unfamiliar individuals in contrast to waking life. Additionally, we found partial support for the social bias and the strengthening hypotheses, however no support was shown for the compensation hypothesis. Overall, these results demonstrate support for the threat simulation function of dreams.

The Value of Subjectivity in the Study of Dreams: An Alternative Methodology in a Quantitative Field

&lt;i&gt;This article presents original research on the dreams of adults during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Mexico. Subjects went through a series of in-depth clinical interviews where they were asked to share their most recent dream and then explored the dream imagery in conversation with the interviewer to find meaning through an analytic, dialogical process. After gathering the data through the interviews, the authors proceeded to use the narrative method and grounded theory to process the findings. The fundamental objective of the article is to explore the advantages that a qualitative exploration of dreams offers over other methodologies of dream analysis. The article proposes that a qualitative approach has the benefit of validating the dreamer’s experience without generalizing it. This shifts the focus of dream research from the description of categories to the co-creation of meanings with the participants. Additionally, it constitutes an initial attempt to explore and understand the affective and/or cognitive conflicts that underly dream imagery rather than simply mentioning repeating elements within the dream content. &lt;/i&gt;

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.