Sleep, dreams and emotion regulation in higher education students

Abstract

Higher education students are particularly susceptible to factors that compromise emotional wellness, including stress, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Sleep is a reversible, natural and cyclical process during which dreams emerge, mental events comprising hallucinatory images. Emotion regulation, through strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, is vital for psychological adjustment. This study aimed to correlate sleep, dreams, and emotion regulation in students. A total of 44 students completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and a Dream Diary for 14 consecutive days. To all of the reported dreams, the Hall and Van Castle quantitative and systematic dream content analysis technique was applied and compared to published normative Hall and Van Castle data. Almost half of the sample demonstrated poor sleep quality. Sleep quality was significantly associated with cognitive reappraisal but not with expressive suppression. Female participants recalled more dreams, which were longer and characterised by a predominance of negative emotions, whereas male participants experienced more positive emotions in dreams. Compared to the normative USA data, Portuguese female students dreamed more frequently about family and also showed higher rates of aggression, friendliness and misfortune. Male Portuguese students had a greater frequency of dreams involving animals, as well as higher rates of aggression, friendliness, sexuality, misfortune, and good fortune.