How social media impacts dreams
The new research followed what Shabahang’s research team defined as a “social media-related nightmare scale,” which was constructed based on previous nightmare classifications, related literature, and other studies that have explored outside influences on dream quality.
Following this scale, 595 study participants noted the frequency of their social media activity and how commonly and intensely they experienced nightmares related to the technology.
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Examples of commonly reported nightmares included conflicts with other social media users, disturbing news stories, doom scrolling, being unable to access one’s social media account, and feelings of victimization, helplessness, and loss of control.
These social media-related nightmares, “were associated with increased anxiety, lower peace of mind, poor sleep quality, and nightmare distress,” says Asad Khan, the lead author of a related study and a biostatistician at The University of Queensland’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
And while people may sometimes experience such adverse outcomes due to other external factors, “the novelty of this study is that these themes are in the specific context of social media,” says Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center in California, who was not involved in the research.
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