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baselgiaandrasch-2026-temporaldynamicsoftheinfluenceofpre-oranticipatedpost-sleepstressondreamcontent_1
Journal article

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Temporal dynamics of the influence of pre- or anticipated post-sleep stress on dream content

PSPE

  • 2025
Published in:
  • Neuropsychologia. - Elsevier BV. - 2026, vol. 220, p. 1-12
Dreams
Stress
Cognition
Anticipated stress
English Psychosocial stress induces stress responses at physiological and cognitive levels which disrupt subsequent sleep. A recent study from our group has shown that stress-induced changes are dynamic: stress before sleep led to prolonged sleep latency and changes in the early sleep period, while anticipated post-sleep stress resulted in changes in the late sleep period. A possible explanation is that anticipated stress is spontaneously reactivated during sleep in a dynamic fashion. As reactivations might be linked to dream content, we investigated the influence of anticipated stress vs. pre-sleep stress on dream content in early and late sleep periods. One group of participants performed either a stress or a relaxation task before sleep (pre-sleep group); while another group was informed before sleep that the stress or relaxation task will occur in the morning (post-sleep group). During sleep, they were regularly woken up in the early and late sleep periods and asked about their cognitive activity, while polysomnographic data was recorded. Fifty-five subjects participated and a total of 668 dreams was collected. While there was no difference in the incorporation of threat- and stress-related elements in the dreams, we did find a temporal difference in their emotionality. The threat intensity was influenced in a dynamic manner, with higher impact on early dreams when stress occurred before sleep and higher threat intensity in late dreams when stress was anticipated after sleep. Our results speak for a reactivation of mental activity in temporal proximity to the stressor for some parameters, mainly with impacts on the dream emotionality and length.
Faculty
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Department
Département de Psychologie
Language
  • English
Classification
Psychology
License
CC BY
Open access status
hybrid
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/333486
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