Pandemic dreams: A qualitative analysis of dream imagery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article examines the content of dreams collected during the beginning of containment due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy (between March and May 2020). Dreams in our sample were compared to the Hall and van de Castle norms. In accordance with the continuity hypothesis, contents of dreams were found to be influenced by the daytime experiences of the pandemic: (a) they were dominated by negative emotions such as fear and anxiety; (b) they depicted a diminished number of social interactions; (c) in aggressive interactions the dreamers were more often enacting the role of the victim; and (d) there was a higher number of dead and familiar characters, conveying death thoughts and the desire to reunite with family. Interestingly, these results were stronger in the female sample suggesting that women were more negatively affected by the pandemic. In addition to the content analysis, we explored the data by performing a reflexive thematic analysis of the function of dreams in coping with the traumatic features of the waking experience. (a) Most of the dreams in our sample were categorized as Repetitive-Traumatic, depicting the repetitions of traumatic scenes experienced in daytime. (b) Following for frequency, we found dreams labeled as Compensatory-Defensive, staging the fulfillment of desires and scenarios opposite to the stressful situation experienced in daytime. (c) Lastly, a few dreams were categorized as Elaborative, depicting situations that evolve toward a resolution or...
Source: Dreaming - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research