Pandemic dreams: quantitative and qualitative features of the oneiric activity during the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy

Abstract

Objective: The lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on daily habits, emotional experience, mental health and sleep. A large body of evidence suggests that dreams are affected by both waking experiences and sleep pattern. In this view, the lockdown should have induced intense modifications in dreaming activity. The aim of the study was to assess dream features during the lockdown in Italy.

Methods: We used an online survey to collect self-reported demographic, clinical, sleep and dream data. Our sample included 1091 participants.

Results: Results point to an increased dream frequency, emotional load, vividness, bizarreness and length during the lockdown, compared to a pre-lockdown period. Higher dream frequency and specific qualitative features were found in females and subjects with poor sleep quality, nocturnal disruptive behaviours and depressive symptoms. Most of the dream features assessed during the lockdown were predicted by age, gender, depressive symptoms, presence/absence of other people at home, and territorial area. A specific focus on sleep features revealed that sleep duration and several sleep quality indexes were the best predictors of dream variables. During the lockdown, dreams were also characterized by increased negative emotions, which were particularly frequent in females, younger adults, and participants with poor sleep quality, nocturnal disruptive behaviours, anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: Our results confirm the hypothesis of a strong influence of the pandemic on dreaming, supporting both the hypothesis of continuity between wake and sleep mental processes and the view of a crucial influence of sleep quality and duration on dreaming activity.

Keywords: COVID-19; Continuity hypothesis; Dreams; Emotions; Lockdown; Sleep pattern.

Fig. 1

Results of the comparisons (paired t-tests) between pre-lockdown (black bars) and lockdown (white bars), performed on the dream variables. Each box represents a dream feature. Error bars represent the standard errors. Asterisks index significant differences (p < 0.05).

Fig. 2

Results of the comparisons between subgroups form on the basis of several demographic and COVID-19 related variables, performed on the lockdown vs. pre-lockdown differences in dream features. Each column represents a dream feature, each line represents a specific demographic or COVID-19 related variable. When only two subgroups were present, an unpaired t-test was performed on each dream features to compare them. When more than two groups were present, an ANOVA one way was performed to compare them. Error bars represent the standard errors. Asterisks index significant differences (p < 0.05).

Fig. 3

Results of the comparisons (unpaired t-tests) between subgroups form on the basis of self-reported sleep and clinical variables, performed on the lockdown vs. pre-lockdown differences in dream features. Specifically, then Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the PSQI-Addendum (PSQI-A) global scores were used as sleep variables, while the global score at the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory I and II (STAI-I and STAI-II) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used as clinical variables. Each column represents a dream feature, each line represents a specific sleep or clinical variable. Error bars represent the standard errors. Asterisks index significant differences (p < 0.05).

Fig. 4

Percentage of each assessed emotion reported in dreams during the pre-lockdown (upper box) and the lockdown period (lower box).

Fig. 5

Number of subjects reporting a positive (blue bars) or a negative (red bars) emotion in dreams during the lockdown in subgroups formed according to demographic, clinical and sleep variables of interest. Asterisks index significant Chi-squares (p < 0.05). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)