Dreaming in quarantine: linguistic analysis of referential process of dreams during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

Abstract

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a collective trauma adversely affecting physical and psychological health. The impact of this trauma made itself manifest in a myriad of ways, including through dreams. This study aimed to explore the Referential Process (RP, Bucci, 2021) of dreams reported during quarantine. Dream samples were collected through a social blog. Linguistic analysis and clinical evaluation were conducted to explore the group’s collective elaboration of a shared traumatic experience. Sixty-eight people (22 males; mean age 26.16 ds. 7.68) contributed to a social-blog, writing their dreams. 91 dreams were collected and transcribed using transcription rules for the Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (DAAP). Linguistic measures of RP were applied and a statistical cluster analysis was performed. In addition, each dream was evaluated by trained judges on three specific qualities of the RP (Arousal, Symbolizing, and Reflection/Reorganizing). Clinical judges in a double-blinded method reached reliable scoring (Arousal α.874 ICC 0.701; Symbolizing α.783 ICC 0.671; Reflection/reorganization α.884 ICC 0.758). Cluster Analysis yielded three dream clusters. 26 dreams fell under a cluster defined as a symbolizing process (Cluster A); 16 into a cluster defined as arousal of emotional activation (Cluster B); and 49 dreams fell into a cluster defined as Reflection/Reorganizing elaboration (Cluster C). Each cluster showed specific linguistic features. The dreams collected through a blog showed a Referential Process that is similar to that found in psychotherapy process. Results suggests that writing dreams can play different functions in processing and integrating social traumatic experience.

Lockdown dreams: Dream content and emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in an italian sample.

“…Concerning the emotional tone of participants’ dreams, our results confirmed our fourth hypothesis. In line with other COVID-19 studies (Borghi et al, 2021; Gorgoni et al, 2021; Mariani et al, 2021; Schredl & Bulkeley, 2020), we found a higher proportion of negative dream emotions relative to positive dream emotions. Fear/fright/terror and anxiety/anguish/worry were the most frequent emotions in the dream reports, representing approximately 50% of the dreams.…”

Narratives of Dreams and Waking Thoughts: Emotional Processing in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Further research should be carried out to confirm these findings in a more generalized way, concluding that dreams allow for a facilitation in the elaboration of traumatic emotional experiences. Our results support the findings of researchers who found that dreams could play a role in the reorganization of experience, particularly, in reference to memories, trauma, and the general ability of problem solving ( Fosshage, 2007 ; Mariani et al, 2021 ). These results are in line with the studies on the psychotherapeutic process, which highlight how dream processing allows for the processing of traumatic experiences ( Gennaro et al, 2020 ).…”

Dreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative review

“…Two studies from Mariani and co-workers (2021a; 2021b) also focused on dream themes. In the first study ( Mariani et al, 2021a ), the authors collected dreams from an online blog during the lockdown and analysed dream themes using different computerized referential processes linguistic measures, revealing three dream clusters: symbolizing process, arousal of emotional activation, reflection/reorganizing elaboration. In the second study ( Mariani et al, 2021b ), they applied computerized referential process linguistic measures and Affect Salience Index, a measure of arousal in written texts ( Fornari, 1976 , Salvatore and Freda, 2011 , Valsiner, 2021 ), on dreams and waking thoughts collected during the lockdown.…”