A Cultural Comparison of Dream Content, Mood and Waking Day Anxiety between Italians and Canadians

Analysis of dream contents of patients with anxiety disorders and their comparison with dreams of healthy participants.

“…Regarding different activities in dreams, only location changes, traveling and transportations, verbal communications, expressive communications, and thinking activities were more frequent in dreams of anxiety sufferers. These results are partly consonant with the data from previous research that dreams of clinical patients with anxiety disorders (DeCicco, et al, 2013; Miller et al, 2015) as well as of nonclinical individuals with higher levels of trait and state anxiety (Jones & DeCicco, 2009) are characterized by higher frequency of change of scene and location.…”

“…Although locations and settings in dreams of anxiety patients were significantly more numerous than in dreams of healthy subjects, in the subcategories this was only substantially for no or questionable settings, indicating that the settings in dreams of anxiety patients are characterized to be unclear and thus may induce insecurity. The finding that the dreams of anxiety patients contain significantly higher numbers of different locations and settings is partly consistent with the previously mentioned findings that dreams of individuals with clinical anxiety disorders (DeCicco et al, 2013; Miller et al, 2015) and people with higher levels of trait and state anxiety (Jones & DeCicco, 2009) are characterized by a higher rate of changes in location and settings.…”

“…Although there are a number of studies that address and explore the relationships between anxiety disorders and the frequency of nightmares or bad dreams (Kellner et al, 1991; Levin & Hurvich, 1995; Nadorff et al, 2014; Nielsen et al, 2000; Ohayon et al, 1997; Picard-Deland et al, 2018; Schredl et al, 2001; Simon et al, 2016; Simonds & Parraga, 1984; Swart et al, 2013), there is still an evident lack of psychological research concerning the subject of associations between anxiety disorders and dream contents in general (Rimsh & Pietrowsky, 2020; Skancke et al, 2014). It is also necessary to note that not only are such studies scarce, the existing investigations on this particular topic bear mostly an isolated and segregated character and highlight and investigate only specific individual minor facets, aspects, and particularities of dreams and dream contents of clinical anxiety sufferers (DeCicco et al, 2013; Foss, 1994; Free et al, 1993; Gentil & Lader, 1978; Khodarahimi, 2009; Kirschner, 1999; Miller et al, 2015; Sikka et al, 2018). Anxiety disorders, however, still remain one of the most prevalent and common psychiatric disorders in the contemporary western world and become more and more widespread among European and U.S. populations each year (Remes et al, 2016).…”