Dream content: Reflections of the emotional and psychological states of earthquake survivors.

Abstract

This study investigated dream narratives as reflections of the emotional and psychological states of earthquake survivors. Dreams and dreams imagery have reportedly been affected by the emotional and psychological trauma that the dreamer goes through. Dream narratives and dream content ratings used in earlier studies were utilized in this study. Narratives and content ratings were obtained from a sample of 27 volunteer survivors of the October 8, 2005 earthquake in Pakistan (Azad Kashmir area) and 27 volunteer controls from similar demographics. Three independent raters judged the dream narratives and dream content ratings. The judges rating were highly congruent (86.05). Findings revealed that the survivor group had more vivid, unpleasant, horrifying, and hostile dreams compared with the control group. However, there were no significant gender differences. The data suggest that a closer study of dreams can be used to understand the underlying trauma for effective interventions. In addition, interesting emergence of recurrent dreams was seen, which will be independently studied in future.

End-of-Life in Oncologic Patients’ Dream Content

“…Our results further confirm the continuity hypothesis expressed by Domhoff [ 30 ] and data from the literature [ 49 , 50 ], according to which the thoughts and concerns in dream reports are the same as those that appear in the dreamer’s waking life, and with the studies of De Cicco and colleagues and Giordano and colleagues [ 26 , 51 ] that have highlighted, in cancer patients, a greater presence of nightmares, negative images and emotions, experiences and images related to illness, death, hospitalization, and pain. More than half of the women in our sample reported explicit references to their illness, hospital settings, and death.…”

Dreaming during lockdown: a quali-quantitative analysis of the Italian population dreams during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave

“…Approaches and models that theorise the role and function of dreams and dream activity are varied and multifaceted. There is a genre of literature (Hartmann & Basile, 2003;Davidson & Lynch, 2012;Najam, Mansoor, Kanwal & Naz, 2006) that highlights the importance of dream exploration during events with traumatic significance such as catastrophes and natural disasters, as they contain and reflect the collective emotional experience. Barrett (1996), in fact, asserts that dreams constitute a window on the trauma and its effects.…”

The route to recall a dream: Theoretical considerations and methodological implications

“…Life events, psychological and physical well-being or stressors show robust correlations with dream features, such as emotionality, bizarreness, intensity or complexity (Bódizs et al, 2008;Hartmann & Brezler, 2008;Hartmann et al, 2001;Najam et al, 2006;Pesant & Zadra, 2006;Punamäki, 2007;Zadra & Donderi, 2000), and less conclusively with DRF as well (Bódizs et al, 2008;Cartwright, 2005;Hill, 1974;Punamäki, 2007).…”

“…Studies aimed to test the assumption that stressors have an impact on dreams via laboratory manipulations of subjects' emotions before sleep yielded controversial results reporting either enhanced or diminished dream recall (Baekeland, 1971;Cohen, 1974a;Foulkes et al, 1967;Foulkes & Rechtschaffen, 1964). Findings regarding the relationship between natural life-situations (divorce, bereavement, different kinds of traumas) and variations in DRF are also ambivalent (Arkin et al, 1976;Cartwright, 1996;Najam et al, 2006;Rofe & Lewin, 1979;Valli et al, 2006). This inconsistent set of data probably reflects a complex relation between awake emotional state, dream content and recall.…”