Characteristics of dreams and nightmares in patients with anxiety disorders.
Characteristics of dreams of clinical outpatients with anxiety disorders still remain a relatively poorly investigated field of psychology. The present study aimed at investigating several dream characteristics of outpatients with anxiety disorders in comparison with dream characteristics of healthy individuals. In the study, 38 adult participants with anxiety disorders and a matched healthy control group of 38 individuals were investigated. During a period of 21 days, all participants filled in written dream diaries directly after sleep, which contained two scales for positive and negative emotions and one scale for the g...
Source: Dreaming - June 16, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Semisupervised lexicon generation using semantic relations for dream content analysis.
This article presents an algorithm for semiautomatic lexicon building for analysis of dreams (SALAD) to automatically build comprehensive category dictionaries from a few initial seed words using lexical-semantic relations. We construct 41 such dictionaries using the proposed algorithm (SALAD) and quantitatively study three different sets of dreams (obtained from the publicly available DreamBank database): the male and female norm (normative) dreams of Hall & Van de Castle (1966) and a subject (Chris) with 100 dreams (1968). Chris’s dreams were also independently coded using the HVdC coding system. We evaluate and compar...
Source: Dreaming - June 6, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of sleep of mental health workers in Colombia.
This study was a cross-sectional study with an analytical approach. Data gathered through an electronic self-reported questionnaire (the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index–Spanish version) was sent by email between September 27 and October 4, 2020. A total of 48.7% (209) of 429 respondents (mental health workers) slept poorly (95% confidence interval [46.3–57.1]). The lowest scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were for psychiatrists and psychologists (χ2 = 52.882, p = .000), women (χ2 = 6.393, p = .011), daytime shift workers (χ2 = 15.890, p = .0001), those who reported having dreams about the COVID-19 pandemic...
Source: Dreaming - June 6, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The feeling priming theory (FPT) of dreaming.
This article presents the feeling priming theory (FPT) of dreaming. According to the FPT, dreaming favors the motivation to avoid aversive anticipated events and to approach gratifying anticipated events. It is suggested that one component of anticipated emotions—anticipated feelings—is reproduced in dreams. Upon awakening and during the day, these anticipated feelings would remain activated (primed) in memory. Consequently, anticipated emotions would exert a greater influence on avoidance and approach behaviors, mainly through an increase in the intensity of anticipatory feelings (i.e., feelings of fear or hope/desire...
Source: Dreaming - May 5, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
A reflection on Ernest Hartmann’s equation between the central image in dreams and the objective correlative in poetry.
This article argues that Hartmann’s equation between central image and objective correlative is amply valid and can shed new light on the relationship between the esthetic experience and the dreaming experience. For this purpose, 3 points are underlined. First, the objective correlative is characterized by its multifaceted dream-like basis. Second, in light of the central role that Eliot attributed to the Italian medieval poets of the “Dolce Stil Nuovo,” the historical significance of a dream reported by Dante is discussed. Third, Hartmann’s equation can assume different aspects, especially regarding the either exp...
Source: Dreaming - May 5, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Pain and nightmares—A diary study of patients with chronic pain.
This study aims to investigate the occurrence of pain in dreams more deeply. For this purpose, a sample of patients with chronic pain disorder was investigated, including an age- and gender-matched control group. All participants kept a dream diary for 28 days and recorded their dream emotions and pain perception they had during their dreams. The patient group showed a significantly higher dream recall frequency and a significantly higher nightmare frequency than the control group. Moreover, patients reported more dreams including pain, whereas the control group seldom reported pain dreams. The intensity of pain in dreams ...
Source: Dreaming - May 5, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Elucidating nightmare proneness: Relationships with emotional dysregulation and psychological vulnerability.
Dreaming, Vol 32(3), Sep 2022, 281-291; doi:10.1037/drm0000207Previous research found that nightmare proneness, a personality disposition to experience frequent nightmares, independently predicted nightmare occurrences after accounting for maladjustment. However, mechanisms involved in the nightmare proneness construct are not well understood. The current study examined a model in which vulnerability and emotional dysregulation influenced nightmare proneness among 143 university students. Consistent with the model, vulnerability and emotional dysregulation independently predicted nightmare proneness after accounting for di...
Source: Dreaming - April 25, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Elucidating nightmare proneness: Relationships with emotional dysregulation and psychological vulnerability.
Previous research found that nightmare proneness, a personality disposition to experience frequent nightmares, independently predicted nightmare occurrences after accounting for maladjustment. However, mechanisms involved in the nightmare proneness construct are not well understood. The current study examined a model in which vulnerability and emotional dysregulation influenced nightmare proneness among 143 university students. Consistent with the model, vulnerability and emotional dysregulation independently predicted nightmare proneness after accounting for distress and gender. Only nightmare proneness accounted for uniq...
Source: Dreaming - April 25, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Bad dreams and bad sleep: Relationships between nightmare frequency, insomnia, and nightmare proneness.
Previous research consistently found a relationship between nightmares and insomnia. The aim of the current study was to investigate how nightmare proneness, a disposition to experience frequent nightmares partly reflecting hyperarousal, might influence this relationship among 339 university students. After controlling for gender, neuroticism, and negative response bias, mediation models found that nightmare proneness had direct relationships with insomnia markers. Nightmare frequency partially mediated nightmare proneness for difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, and returning to sleep after waking but not early...
Source: Dreaming - April 21, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
“Dreams drawer”: Analysis of dreams during lockdown in the Italian population.
The COVID-19 pandemic has indiscriminately involved the whole world, producing a collective trauma that may have activated socially shared mental processes. It was hypothesized that the content of dreams could reflect a change in the way people are conceptualizing relationships, their environment, and the world in general after the emergency and the lockdown. We used data from “Dream Drawer,” a free online forum where people could read about others’ dreams or write about their own. Our sample consisted of 68 participants and 90 dreams. Most of them were students, and 85% of the participants were facing lockdown at ho...
Source: Dreaming - April 14, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Differences between lucid and nonlucid dream reports: A within-subjects design.
Dreaming, Vol 32(4), Dec 2022, 345-352; doi:10.1037/drm0000199Lucid dreams are characterized by the awareness of the dreamer that s/he is dreaming. Typically, if the dreamer can control the dream action, pleasurable activities like flying or having sex are chosen. The present study analyzing lucid and nonlucid dream reports reported by 100 persons confirmed previous findings that lucid dreams contain more positive emotions than nonlucid dreams. Moreover, lucid dream reports also included fewer problems, being less often subject to verbal aggression, and fewer death themes. A new finding is that lucid dream reports include ...
Source: Dreaming - April 7, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Representation of dreams in medieval Sufi texts: A qualitative study.
Dreaming, Vol 33(2), Jun 2023, 187-205; doi:10.1037/drm0000201For medieval Sufis, dreams were a portal to the spiritual realm. Their ideas are a valuable source for tracing and better understanding the sociocultural beliefs of today's Muslim people regarding the meaning and function of veridical dreams. We used the thematic analysis method to analyze 387 dream narratives from 34 books by Sufis from the 9th to the 15th centuries to determine how dreams were represented in these works. Five major themes were extracted: 1. dream as a mode of communication and as a messenger; 2. dream as a means of endorsement and validation; ...
Source: Dreaming - March 24, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Prevalence and detailed experience of frequent sexual dream in Chinese university students.
Dreaming, Vol 32(4), Dec 2022, 356-363; doi:10.1037/drm0000198The sexual dream is partly connected with sexual crimes and affects both physical and psychological well-being of university students, but there is no investigation on the detailed sexual dream experience and the depressive mood in this population in China. Altogether 3,479 students in a comprehensive Chinese university were invited to report their frequency of lifelong sexual dream. The frequent sexual dreamers (sDreamers) and nonfrequent sexual dreamers (controls) were invited to answer the Sexual Dream Experience Questionnaire (SDEQ) and the Plutchik–van Pr...
Source: Dreaming - March 21, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
