Book publication: Dreaming during confinement by Perrine Ruby, researcher at the CRNL PAM team

What impact has confinement had on our lives? What did we dream about? What metaphors did the dream use to represent this unprecedented, borderless, threatening and anxiety-provoking situation? What do these dreams tell us about the feelings of French people during this period, about the issues of our time?

This book, published by EDP Sciences, proposes to answer these questions based on the results of the online survey "Confinement, Sommeil et Rêves" (Containment, Sleep and Dreams) launched on 6 April 2020 throughout France. The analysis of more than 3,000 responses allows us to estimate the quantitative and qualitative impact that the health crisis and the confinement have had on our lives, our dreams and our souls.

The survey highlighted many changes in lifestyles (e.g. sleep, exercise, sex, smoking, alcohol). In terms of dreams, they were more negative than usual or, on the contrary, more positive. The dream metaphors revealed common feelings and aspirations across France (e.g. anxiety, powerlessness, submission).

Indignation, anger, and injustice are present in all these intimate testimonies, as well as the will to resist and the aspiration for better days, greener, freer, more collective, more together.

Orders and information : clic

You can find interviews with Madame Ruby about the publication of this book in the media below:

Le Progrès de Lyon du 26 décembre

BFM TVLyon

CortexMag