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. 2024 Dec 30;14(1):31975.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-83642-7.

Frequency and categorization of presleep fantasies

Anna Szente  1 , Husamalddin Ali Alhour  1 , Eszter Áfra  2 , Ákos Arató  1   2 , Barnabás Dudás  1 , Anna Szűcs  3 , Réka Horváth  1 , Norbert Kovács  1 , Gergely Darnai  4   5   6 , József Janszky  1   7
Affiliations

Frequency and categorization of presleep fantasies

Anna Szente et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The content of presleep thoughts have been assumed to influence sleep quality for a long time, e.g., insomnia has repeatedly been discussed to be associated with anxious thoughts before falling asleep. However, the phenomenon of recurring, voluntary fantasizing before sleep does not appear to be a common research topic. In the first stage of this study, we explored the frequency of presleep fantasizing on a sample of 281 volunteers. In the second stage, we analyzed the content of ca. 5000 fantasy descriptions found online to discover similar patterns. Our results showed that approximately 75% of the respondents fantasizes before sleep regularly and could describe three main topics during categorization ('aims and ambitions', thinking about a 'calming' scene, 'fading away and death'). Based on our findings, presleep fantasizing is a common phenomenon. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate and categorize presleep fantasies.

Keywords: Fantasy; Presleep fantasy; Presleep period; Sleep.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval: During this study, all methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Based on the official statement of the Regional Research Ethics Committee of the University of Pécs (9861 – PTE 2024) an Ethical Approval was not necessary for this study. Using this questionnaire was considered safe, as all data were collected anonymously. With completing the online questionnaire, applicants voluntarily took part in this study, and an informed consent was obtained from all participants. Regarding Study II, data was collected from publicly available online platforms. For the protection of user privacy, our results did not contain any identifiable information about the users, and we have complied with the relevant terms and conditions of these platforms. Due to the use of anonymized, publicly available data, and the position of Reddit, that collection of data is not prohibited for academic purposes only (i.e. non-commercial), an ethical approval was not necessary, supported by the statement of the Regional Research Ethics Committee of the University of Pécs (9861 – PTE 2024). Previous studies analyzing online data have followed a similar approach.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic presentation of subcategory ‘outside danger’ belonging to the first-order category, ‘calming fantasies’. Note: This figure demonstrates examples of danger sources and safe place choices within the subcategory ‘outside danger’.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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