Specifically, we view daydreaming as a form of dream-like mentation and examine its relationship with sleep, mood, and dissociative symptoms in a unique experience-sampling study with an individual meeting diagnostic criteria for depersonalization/derealization disorder (DDD American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
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In this paper, we present an initial test and extension of this theory by examining the role of daydreaming in dissociation. In this cycle, imaginative, “dream-like,” mentation intrudes into waking life, which, in turn, contributes to dissociative experiences and symptoms. Recent research and theory proposes that dissociative disorders are maintained and exacerbated by a labile sleep-wake cycle. Prevalence estimates for dissociative disorders range from 4 to 29% of the population and typically involve two common aspects of dissociation: depersonalization (i.e., feelings of disconnection from one's self such as feeling like a robot or automaton) and derealization (i.e., feeling disconnected from ongoing reality, as if the world is distorted or moving in slow motion van der Kloet et al., 2012b). Dissociation in dissociative disorders typically involves substantial ongoing problems in integrating thoughts and feelings into consciousness and memory, with associated poor psychosocial functioning ( Waller et al., 1996). Although, typically viewed on a continuum, clinical forms of dissociation are not simply reflective of psychological absorption. The treatment implications of targeting sleep and daydreaming for dissociative disorders are discussed.ĭetaching from one's immediate surroundings when engrossed in an exhilarating novel or experiencing the energized focus of “flow” at work, are examples of dissociative experiences that can occur in everyday life. Findings offer initial evidence that the occurrence and content of daydreams may act as potentiating states for heightened, in the moment, dissociation. Sleep quality but not duration was a negative predictor of daily dissociation and also negatively predicted depression but not anxiety. These relationships were mediated by feelings of depression and anxiety. Daydreaming was reported on 45% of occasions and significantly predicted greater dissociation, in particular when daydreams were repetitive and negative (but not fanciful) in content. At the start of each day sleep quality and duration was also rated. Using experience-sampling methodology, the participant rated (six times daily for 40 days) current daydreaming, mood, and dissociative symptoms. We report the results of a unique intensive N = 1 study with an individual meeting diagnostic criteria for DDD. Daydreaming is a state of consciousness between dreaming and waking cognition that involves stimulus-independent and task-unrelated mentation. We explore and extend this idea by examining the state of daydreaming in dissociation. Research and theory suggests that dissociation may be exacerbated and maintained by a labile sleep-wake cycle in which “dream-like” mentation intrudes into waking life and fuels dissociative symptoms.
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This study examined in real time the role of sleep and daydreaming as potentiating states for subsequent dissociation in depersonalization/derealization disorder (DDD).
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