Katja Valli
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
The purpose of the study is to examine how the war in Ukraine has affected and continues to affect the well-being and content of mind-wandering of Finns, and how this, in turn, influences the content of their dreams.
Immediately after the war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, a data collection was initiated, asking participants to anonymously complete a survey related to psychological well-being and ill-being.
They were also asked to keep a dream and mind-wandering diary for 14 days. The first reports were recorded on March 8, and the last on June 7, 2022. The plan is to collect follow-up data in the spring of 2026 and compare these two war-related data to pre-war data collected using the same method.
Impact of War on Well-Being and Mental States
The study will provide new information on how Russia’s unexpected attack on Ukraine, the threat of a broader war in Europe, and the prolonged conflict are impacting well-being and involuntary mental content, such as mind-wandering and dreams, of Finns.
The project is part of Ville Loukonen’s PhD project and co-supervised with Antti Revonsuo (University of Skövde), Jarno Tuominen (University of Turku, Finland) and Henri Olkoniemi (University of Oulu, Finland).