Dream experiences and psychological distress: a network analysis of pathological worry, depression, anxiety, and stress

Abstract

Abstract Dreaming has long been implicated in emotional processing, yet the complex relationships between specific dream experiences and different dimensions of psychological distress remain insufficiently understood. This study explored the network relationships between dream-related experiences, pathological worry, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress using a network analytic approach. A community sample of 389 adults ( M = 24.24, SD = 7.45) completed the Mannheim Dream questionnaire, the Penn State-Worry Questionnaire, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21. A Gaussian graphical model was estimated to examine conditional associations between nine variables, and centrality and stability indices were evaluated. The resulting network showed a relatively dense structure, with depression, anxiety, and stress forming a strongly interconnected cluster, and stress emerging as highly central node. Pathological worry was most strongly associated with stress. Within the dream-related domain, recall was strongly associated with telling dreams and moderately with dream emotional intensity, which in turn was associated with the impact of dreams on daytime mood. Cross-domain associations revealed that negative dream emotional tone was negatively associated with depressive symptoms and pathological worry, whereas the perceived impact of dreams on daytime mood was positively associated with anxiety. Centrality analyses revealed that dream emotional tone and stress were the most central and influential nodes in the network, showing opposite pattern of expected influence. Stability analyses suggested acceptable reliability of estimated network, although some edges should be considered with caution. These findings suggest that dream experiences are embedded with a broader system of emotional functioning, with specific dream dimensions, particularly emotional tone, closely linked to psychological distress. Future research should further explore the role of dream-related emotional processes in waking distress.