Ableidinger Severin, Nierwetberg Franziska, Holzinger Brigitte
Institut für Bewusstseins- und Traumforschung, Canongasse 13/1, 1180 Vienna, Austria.
Medizinisches Schlafcoaching, Postgraduate Medizinische Universität Wien, Spitalgasse 23, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Somnologie (Berl). 2022;26(2):106-110. doi: 10.1007/s11818-022-00351-x. Epub 2022 May 3.
The pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a huge impact on public mental health. This was also reflected in dreams. Not only did people start to remember more dreams, but dream content changed as themes like sickness, confinement, and-in the English-speaking world-even bugs began to dominate. This also led to an increase in nightmare frequency. There are various factors that contributed to this change in the dream landscape. Some people have started to sleep more and hereby spend more time in REM sleep, which is known to increase dream recall and further lead to bizarre and vivid dreams. On the other hand, stress and poor mental health had an impact on sleep, and sleep quality thus dropped in many individuals. Poor sleep quality can also lead to an increase in dream recall. Dreams are known to regulate mood, so the rise in dreams and the change in dream content could also reflect a reaction to the overall rise in stress and decline in mental health. Recent studies have shown that as the pandemic progresses, further changes in mental health, dream recall, and dream content arise, but data are still scarce. Further research could help understand the impact the pandemic still has on mental health and dreams, and how this impact is changing over the course of the pandemic.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）引发的大流行对公众心理健康产生了巨大影响。这一点在梦境中也有所体现。人们不仅开始更多地记起梦境，而且梦境内容也发生了变化，诸如疾病、禁闭，以及在英语国家甚至出现的虫子等主题开始占据主导。这也导致噩梦频率增加。有多种因素促成了梦境景象的这种变化。一些人开始增加睡眠时间，从而在快速眼动睡眠阶段花费更多时间，众所周知，快速眼动睡眠会增加梦境回忆，并进一步导致奇异而生动的梦境。另一方面，压力和心理健康不佳对睡眠产生了影响，许多人的睡眠质量因此下降。睡眠质量差也会导致梦境回忆增加。众所周知，梦境具有调节情绪的作用，因此梦境增多以及梦境内容的变化也可能反映出对压力总体上升和心理健康下降的一种反应。近期研究表明，随着大流行的发展，心理健康、梦境回忆和梦境内容还会出现进一步变化，但相关数据仍然匮乏。进一步的研究有助于了解大流行对心理健康和梦境仍在产生的影响，以及这种影响在大流行过程中是如何变化的。
