Emotional state and dreams in pregnant women

The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of recall and the content of dreams during pregnancy, as well as their correlation with socio-demographic, obstetric and physician-patients relationship variables, emotional state and duration of labour. A questionnaire, designed to analyse background characteristics, was given to 290 women in the third trimester of gestation. The psychiatric analysis of anxiety and depression was performed using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, while dreams were divided into masochistic and pleasant according to Beck's criteria. Oneiric activity was found to be associated with age >or= 35 years, higher family income, higher educational level, and a "satisfactory" physician-patient relationship. Masochistic content was associated with age<35 years, quality of information and frequent thoughts of delivery. Concerning the emotional state, depression levels were higher in women reporting masochistic dreams, while no difference in anxiety levels was found. Labour duration was shorter in the dreamer group and in patients with masochistic dream content. These findings may indicate that, also in pregnancy, the number and the content of dreams are influenced by women's mood and that the evaluation of the oneiric activity might represent a useful tool for clinicians either to investigate the women's emotional state or to predict its repercussions on the course of labour.