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Study captured
effects of 9/11 on dreams
(August/September
2007 Issue)
By Pamela Berard
Ruth Propper, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Merrimack
College in Massachusetts found herself in a unique position when
she initiated a classroom dream exercise a few years ago.
Shortly after asking her students to start dream journals in the
fall 2001 semester, the unthinkable happened - the terrorist attacks
of September 11.
In the Psychological Science study published in April 2007, Propper
shows how those journals demonstrated a link between television
viewing of disaster coverage and night trauma. Students who watched
a lot of television on 9/11 - some watched more than 13 hours -
had more stressful dreams than students who watched less coverage.
Furthermore, students who did more talking about the events with
friends and family were less likely to have traumatic dreams.
The study presented a rare opportunity because typically when studying
dreams, it is difficult to track how traumatic experiences affect
dreams because you don't know who is going to be traumatized, says
Propper. "This gave us a unique opportunity to look at dreams before
and after some type of major traumatizing event."
The study was co-authored by Robert Stickgold, Ph.D., a sleep researcher
at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The day after 9/11, 11 of Propper's students filled out questionnaires
about how much they'd watched TV, listened to the radio and talked
to others about the attacks.
The study determined that for every hour of television watched
that day, there was a six percent average increase in the proportion
of dreams containing a specific reference to the event. Specific
references included explosions, planes, New York City or box cutters.
Such dreams are typically a sign of stress, while more thematic
dreams indicate a person is working out his/her feelings, according
to the researchers.
"Increased levels of trauma from the events of 9/11, as caused
by television viewing, resulted in increased specific images in
the dreams," Propper says.
A fairly large body of research shows that traumatized people will
dream (or report dreaming) of the actual events that resulted in
the trauma, Propper says. For example, a person who was mugged will
dream of the actual mugging.
Students who talked about the events with family and friends were
more likely to have thematic dreams, which included flying, disappearances
or tall buildings. Thematic dreams indicate a person is processing
feelings and "moving past" a trauma, researchers say.
"There is a body of research that suggests that people who move
past a trauma tend to dream less of the specifics about what happened
and more about thematically related things," Propper explains. "For
example, a person who is moving past the trauma of being mugged
might report dreaming about being chased in general and not specifically
about the mugging in particular."
The study said all students experienced at least a moderate level
of stress.
According to the study, the findings provide evidence that the
media may have had an impact on the emotional well-being of U.S.
citizens following 9/11. It suggests broadcasters consider whether
repetitious broadcasting of traumatic images "is in keeping with
their goal of serving the public." It also suggests the public might
consider the benefits of talking with friends and family about traumatic
events.
Propper says she saw a difference in television coverage following
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute school shootings in April 2007.
"Virginia Tech was quite different in at least one respect. What
was broadcast were interviews with people who had witnessed or been
involved with, the events, not the events themselves," she says.
"On 9/11 the events themselves were broadcast. People watched other
people dying, leaping from windows, buildings collapsing. In this
sense then, the events at Virginia Tech were much less graphic.
It is unclear if watching someone be interviewed about a horrific
event could produce the types of trauma and/or dreams that actually
viewing the event produced."
While dreams themselves aren't harmful, Propper says the question
is, "What is causing the dreams to occur?"
"To the extent that dreaming about traumatic events indicates
traumatization, then a person might want to seek some sort of counseling.
On the other hand, if the dreams do not reflect any sort of trauma,
then a person can simply enjoy knowing that they aren't real."
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