Scientists in the US have found that dreams about the 2024 presidential election are linked to a worsening of mood the next morning. The study was published in the journal PLOS One. It involved 931 American adults with an average age of 42. Among them were 494 women, 434 men and three who indicated another gender. About 43% identified as Republicans, 38% as Democrats and 19% as independents.
Participants filled out two questionnaires on two consecutive days. The first was on the morning of November 5, 2024, before polling stations closed. The second was the following morning, when it was already known that Donald Trump had won. In the first questionnaire, people rated their feelings about the election, their personal future and the country's future, and also reported their mood. In the second, they described the dreams they had had on election night and again answered the same questions.
It turned out that 71% of participants remembered some dream, and 49% of them linked it to the election. About a quarter of all dreams directly mentioned the candidates or other election-related images. Simply remembering a dream did not in itself change attitudes toward the election or the future. However, among those who dreamed about the election, a stronger shift toward the negative was observed the next morning compared with those who did not have such dreams. This effect was pronounced among Democrats and, to a lesser extent, among independents, but was absent among Republicans.
A similar picture emerged regarding feelings about the future. Democrats who dreamed about the election felt more negativity the next morning both about their personal future and about the country's future. Among independents, attitudes worsened only toward their personal future. Among Republicans, the view of the future did not depend on whether they had dreamed about the election or not.
The authors note that the study is correlational: it shows a statistical association but does not prove that the dreams themselves caused the change in mood. It is possible that people who were more engaged in the election or who watched the news before sleep more often had such dreams and reacted more strongly to the result. In addition, the data are based only on self-reports, and participants' sleep was not measured. Election night may have been restless, which affected dream recall. Only one night was studied, so it cannot be said whether such a dream helps people adapt to events in the long term.
"Contrary to our expectations, dreams about the election were associated with increased emotions about the election, the personal and collective future. These observations contradict the long-standing hypothesis that dreams reduce emotional reactivity after an emotional event, and instead suggest that dreaming about an experience is associated with greater reactivity," the researchers concluded.