The American dream: Election night dreams predict overnight change in feelings about the election and the future.

Abstract

Real-life experiences are often incorporated into our dreams. Does dreaming about those experiences affect how we feel about them? Prior studies have suggested that dreaming may attenuate emotional reactivity overnight, with participants feeling less negative about an experience after dreaming about it. The present study used the 2024 US presidential election to examine the relationship between dreaming and emotional reactivity in the context of a real-life emotional experience. We hypothesized that dreaming about the election would be associated with reduced negative feelings toward it the following morning. N = 931 American participants completed an online survey on the day of and the day after the 2024 US election. Participants rated their feelings about the election, their personal future, and the collective future of the country before and after election night and reported their dreams from that night. Contrary to our hypotheses, dreaming about the election was associated with intensified negative affect the next morning, including a more negative outlook on the personal and collective future. This pattern was specific to Democrats and Independents - dreaming about the election was not associated with overnight changes in affect among Republicans. Contrary to emotional regulation theories of dreaming, these observations suggest that sleep and dreaming are associated with amplified emotional reactivity, at least in the short-term.