The impact of the end of COVID confinement on pandemic dreams, as assessed by a weekly sleep diary: a longitudinal investigation in Italy.

Summary

During the Italian COVID-19 lockdown, 90 participants kept a sleep-dream diary for two weeks: the first week under full lockdown and the second week after restrictions eased. Compared to post-lockdown, the lockdown period was associated with more awakenings, greater difficulty falling asleep, higher dream recall, and more frequent lucid dreams. After restrictions eased, participants reported more dreams about being in crowded places. Poorer sleep quality during lockdown aligns with earlier findings. The increase in lucid dreams during confinement may reflect an attempt to cope with pandemic experiences, while the crowded-place dreams after lockdown support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The Coronavirus 2019 pandemic strongly affected our sleep and dream activity. Many cross-sectional studies highlighted increased dream recall frequency, and revealed a great presence of pandemic-related oneiric contents. Here, we present the first prospective study carried out on an Italian sample. One-hundred subjects were requested to fill out a web-survey including socio-demographic information, and questionnaires collecting sleep and clinical measures during lockdown. A final sample of 90 subjects participated in the longitudinal protocol lasting 2 weeks: (a) the first week (April 28-May 4) of full lockdown; and (b) the second week (May 5-May 11) of easing of restrictions. Subjects were asked to record at home their dream experiences, and complete a sleep-dream diary each morning. Statistical comparisons showed that participants had higher numbers of awakenings, lower ease of falling asleep, higher dream recall and lucid dream frequency during lockdown than post-lockdown. Further, subjects reported more dreams, including "being in crowded places" during post-lockdown than lockdown. The poorer sleep quality during lockdown is quite consistent with previous findings. The relationship between traumatic events and dream recall frequency confirmed the idea of pandemic as "collective trauma". Also, we hypothesized that the greater presence of lucid dreams during confinement could reflect the attempt to cope with the waking pandemic-experiences. Finally, the presence of crowded places into dream scenarios during the second week of our protocol appears consistent with the continuity-hypothesis, as the possibility to access places frequented by other people could represent a relevant experience after a long period of confinement.