Graphic by the volunteers (inspired by their dreams during the pandemic). Photo credit: Natália Mota
Dreams during the COVID-19 According to a new Brazilian study, the pandemic lockdowns reflect mental suffering (anger, sadness) and fear of contagion.
Are dream reports from the Covid-19 pandemic different from dream reports before the pandemic? (A) Data collection timeline (audio recordings of dreams reported through a smartphone application) and illustrative examples of two translated dream reports from the same participant, one before and one after the Covid-19 pandemic. Words in red are associated with emotions, and words in blue are semantically related to the terms “contamination” and “cleanliness”. (B) Flowchart showing the group composition. (C) Representative examples of computer-aided analysis of dream reports from the same participants before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo credit: Mota et al., 2020 (PLOS ONE, CC BY 4.0)
Dreaming during the Covid-19 pandemic: The computer-aided evaluation of dream reports shows psychological suffering in connection with the fear of infection.
The current global threat from the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread social isolation, creating new challenges in dealing with metal ailments related to social distancing and in quickly learning new social habits to prevent contagion. Neuroscience and psychology agree that dreaming helps people deal with negative emotions and learn from experience. However, can dreaming effectively reveal mental suffering and changes in social behavior?
To answer this question, we examined 239 dream reports from 67 people using natural language processing tools, either before the Covid-19 outbreak or in March and April 2020, when in Brazil according to the WHO statement a lockdown was imposed on the pandemic. Pandemic dreams showed a higher proportion of anger and sadness words and higher average semantic similarities with the terms “contamination” and “cleanliness”.
These traits appear to be related to mental suffering related to social isolation as they explain 40% of the variance in the negative subscale of PANSS related to socialization (p = 0.0088). These results confirm the hypothesis that pandemic dreams reflect mental suffering, fear of contagion, and important changes in daily habits that directly affect socialization.
Reference: November 30, 2020, PLUS ONE.
DOI: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0242903
Financing:
- NBM, MC and SR have received financial support from Boehringer-Ingelheim (FADE / UFPE grants 270.906 and 270.561);
- SR, MC and CR received financial support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico and Tecnológico (CNPq; CNPq.br) PVE grant 401518 / 2014-0, universal grant 480053 / 2013-8, 408145 / 2016-1, 439434 / 2018-1 , 425329 / 2018-6 and Research Productivity Grants 308775 / 2015-5, 306659 / 2019-0, 301744 / 2018-1 and 310712 / 2014-9;
- SR and MC received financial support from the projects OBEDUC-ACERTA 0898/2013, PROEX 534/2018 and STIC AmSud 062/2015;
- MC received financial support from the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE) grant APQ – 0642–1.05 / 18;
- SR and MC received financial support from the Center for Neuromathematics of the São Paulo Research Foundation FAPESP (grant 2013 / 07699-0).
Funders had no role in the design of the study, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.
