how Kovid-19 is affecting people’s dreams Australia is the subject of a study conducted by a cross-disciplinary team of academics from Australia, the UK and Finland.
Along with rims from popular audience articles and social media posts, “Epidemic Dreams” is the subject of a book of essays by Harvard researcher Deirdre Barrett.
Working on the project with researchers from Cambridge University in England and the University of Turku in Farland, Dr. Monash, a senior research fellow in philosophy at the University of Monash. Jennifer Wind says, “Certainly there was different evidence that inspired this project. . “People seem to report strange dreams, but usually they report that they are dreaming more … and unfortunately often more negative tone dreams and nightmares come. So that was a part of it.”
Participants in the “Covid on Mind” study, who will be anonymous, will enter the dream over a two-week period and perform a “daily mind-wandering task.”
But first, they will be asked to complete a wellness questionnaire that examines their mental state, and “especially coronavirus-related concerns” to researchers on “how people react, how concerned they are about the virus, and related changes.” For viruses in their daily lives ”.
The cross-disciplinary project involves cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists and sleep and dream researchers, many of whom study how people’s mental state is reflected when they are awake. “We have people on the team who have worked a lot on emotions and dreams … The epidemic seems like an ideal opportunity to study,” says Wint.
He says there’s already a suggestion of research suggesting that “negative tones” are associated with issues such as anxiety and depression, and wonders, “Does dreams change to help identify people with mental health issues?”
“We have no interest in interpreting dreams,” he says. “This is really a completely different approach to trying to get objective numbers … it has to do with the amount of change in emotion, and they have to do with the action of conscious thought and emotion.”
Other researchers will examine the number of social interactions people recorded in both their dreams and mind-wandering tasks. “Dreaming has the potential to develop social skills in an excellent way, it has been suggested.” “We know that many of our interactions have become virtual … how does that affect people’s dreams?”
“Dream Oddity”, which Windt describes as “a technical term for different ways in which nightmares can be weird”, will also be the focus for Muella Kirberg, a PhD student based in Melbourne.
To determine how strange, social, positive or negative a dream is, independent writers read through the reports of dreams and score them using established criteria. They rate the occurrence of “emotional conditions” and “social content”. Any comments that do not become part of the dream description – for example the dreamer’s own interpretation – are canceled, and the writers talk to each other to make sure they are scoring the dream. “You need a lot of patience and perseverance to score that, as well as training,” says Wind. “A lot of dreams are pretty physical.”
Researchers are currently recruiting volunteers for the study – and anyone over the age of 18 living in the UK, Australia, Australia or Finland can take part. The study will be open for 12 months. The resulting dataset will feature more than 1,000 dreams and dreams.
Wind is curious about people’s dreams and mind-wandering, especially in lockdowns. “It’s clearly horrible what’s going on in Melbourne,” he says. But, “I think it’s a particularly interesting period for people to get involved … how do their dreams relate to changing external circumstances?”
Wind’s own work as a philosopher focuses on “consciousness and cognitive science” – and he is particularly interested in the mind wandering elements of study. “There’s a big body of research that shows that we spend 30 to 50% to awaken 30 to 50% of life,” he says. “It really suggests that we have no control over our thoughts and meditations to awaken life … It’s really interesting as a philosopher.”
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