Contextualising imagery in dreams following a September 11 video from television news

The aim of the study was to examine the impact of a traumatic video in producing dream imagery that contextualises emotion. Participants were 24 psychology undergraduates and members of the public. They completed the Empathy subscale of the Eysenck Impulsivity Scale, and watched two videos at least 3 days apart. One reported the September 11 terrorist attack and the other was a first-year psychology lecture. Twenty-four hours after viewing each video participants completed an Impact of Event Scale–Revised. They recorded dreams during the 3 nights following each video. As predicted, there was significantly more intense contextualising dream imagery following the September 11 video. Intensity was significantly related to impact ratings but not to empathy.

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