Significance of Automatically Detected Word Recurrences in Dream Associations

Verbal data files including dream reports and associations with the report items were subjected to automatic analysis aiming at the recognition of word recurrences. The research was based on the following assumptions: the associations can provide information about the dream sources; the recognition of word recurrences in text files can be a useful tool for the study of dreaming; the identification of links between different dream sources can provide an interesting insight into the phenomenon of dreaming. The principal result obtained was that word recurrences often evidence possible significant links between dream sources. A number of the possible links evidenced by the automatic analysis not only escaped the subject's notice, but might also be unexpected for an analyzer not assisted by a computer.     

Dream Recall Frequency and Dream Detail as Mediated by Personality, Behavior, and Attitude

Many studies investigated how personality, behavior, and attitude mediate dream recall, but few distinguish between measures of dream recall frequency: the number of dreams experienced in a specified time frame and dream detail: individual ratings of vividness or detailed content of dreams. This study compared undergraduates' (n = 173) self-reported dream recall frequency, and dream detail, with behaviors, attitude toward dreaming, and scores on scales of Extraversion/Introversion and Type A/B. Dream recall frequency and dream detail manifested different patterns of association in relation to behaviors, attitude and personality. Dream recall frequency was associated with the frequency of experiencing emotionally disturbing dreams and trying to interpret dreams, while detail of dreams was associated with positive attitude toward dreaming and Type B personality. Although males and females both held positive attitudes toward dreaming, females experienced more emotionally disturbing dreams and felt unable to control their dreams. Interactions between personality and gender emerged for behaviors associated with dreaming. Researchers are encouraged to differentiate between dream recall frequency and dream detail.     

Austrian Dream Behavior: Results of a Representative Population Survey

This study was based on a survey of a representative sample of 1000 Austrians who were questioned about their sleep and dream behavior. About two-thirds of the respondents reported that they generally recalled at least one dream per month. Dream recall frequency decreased with advancing age, but did not differ between men and women. Fifty-five percent of the respondents characterized the affective content of their dreams: 29% reported neutral, 20% positive, and 6% negative dreams. Four percent of the sample reported suffering from nightmares. These respondents more frequently reported snoring, interrupted sleep, daytime somnolence, anxiety and nervousness, depression, high dream recall, recurrent dreams, and dreaming in color. Twenty-six percent of the total sample reported that sometimes they realized during their dreams that they were dreaming. These respondents more frequently reported family problems, high dream recall, positive dream content, recurrent dreams, dreaming in color, and nightmares.     

Invisible Elites? Authority and the Dream

This paper seeks to develop a perspective on the dynamic interplay between dreaming, culture and identity. A spectrum of examples show that dream imagery has had and still has today tremendous cultural significance across a whole array of historical, religious and contemporary political and personal contexts. The visionary dream is shown to have underpinned the charter myths of both Israel and Serbia/Kosovo as well as having been the generative source of a core body of hierarchically organised spiritual knowledge in Islamic societies, possibly including the Taliban. Annunciation and calling dreams are commonplace in shamanic and some other societies and individuals can have dreams that prefigure aspects of their developing personal myths. The power and politics of dreaming is further exemplified in the author's example from his dreamwork group that suggest we can dream within the cultural and oppressive stereotypes of our gendered and racist time. Our experience of reality is presented as being dynamically co-created out of both the normative events of everyday life as well as from the human experience of the dream in its powerful and politically evocative forms.     

A Historical Loop of One Hundred Years: Similarities Between 19th Century and Contemporary Dream Research

Contemporary cognitive and neuropsychological approaches to dreaming show striking methodological and conceptual similarities with the scientific dream literature of the last century. The use of introspective dream reports and the emphasis on dream phenomenology are characteristic of both periods but were bannished during the first half of this century, the former by behaviorism, the latter by psychoanalysis. Three main common axioms of 19th century and contemporary dream research are described: (a) dream experience results from cognitive syntheses realized in the absence of external constraints; (b) dream narrative or dream coherency involves mental associative mechanisms; (c) dream bizarreness emerges from a cerebral state characterized by functional dissociation. According to these three axioms, the observation of dream phenomena reveals that distinct cognitive processes might function in a partly autonomous, automatic, and dissociated way, making dreaming a unique model of these cognitive processes.     

Reply to Domhoff (2004): Dream Research in the Court of Public Opinion.

The author responds to Domhoff's critique (see record 2004-11640-001). He argues that the REM = dreaming equation was widely accepted at the time of his research. Misgivings about this equation by specialists in the dream research community were not shared by the wider public. The impression that the REM = dreaming equation disproves Freudian dream theory was actively propagated to this wider public between the 1970s and 1990s. The author's aim in the nonspecialist book criticized by Domhoff was to correct that specific misimpression, not to review the world literature. The author concludes with a brief statement of his views on Freudian dream theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why Did Empirical Dream Researchers Reject Freud? A Critique of Historical Claims by Mark Solms.

Neuropsychologist and psychoanalyst Mark Solms (1997) made a major contribution to dream research through his clinico-anatomical studies, which reveal the outlines of the neural network that underlies dreaming. However, in more recent work (see record 2002-17656-000) he misunderstands the history of the rapid eye movement (REM)/non-REM (NREM) controversy in a Freudian-serving way and ignores the considerable systematic empirical evidence that contradicts the key claims of the Freudian dream theory he is trying to revive. After summarizing Solms's claims about the history of laboratory dream research, this article suggests a different version of that history and summarizes the empirical findings that explain why Freudian theory is not considered viable by most dream researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream Lab: An experiential pedagogic approach to dream theories and characteristics.

Dream Lab is an experiential pedagogic activity designed to enhance student learning with respect to the topic of dreaming. The present study focused on determining the efficacy of Dream Lab as a method for teaching dream theories and characteristics to undergraduate students. Results indicated that students who participated in the Dream Lab exercise demonstrated better retention of knowledge on dream theories and characteristics 2 to 4 weeks after completion of the activities. Dream Lab is recommended as an effective method for teaching dream theories and characteristics to undergraduate students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal Aspects of Dreaming: A Preliminary Classification

Despite the fact that a handful of modern dream researchers have called attention to a link between language and dreaming, beginning with Freud (1900) and Kraepelin (1906), and continuing to the present (e.g. Heynick 1993), much remains to be understood about the role of language in dreaming. Certain commonly reported phenomena may be taken as evidence that the linguistic system is active during dreaming. Four categories of dream phenomena are described and illustrated to support the claim that verbal thought is an important component of dream formation and content.     

Dream Content and Personality: Thick vs. Thin Boundaries

Using dream diary procedures and statistically controlling for age and gender, the present study investigated the relationship between Hartmann's (1991) boundary concept and various aspects of dreaming. Results with a sample of young adults confirmed earlier findings that persons with thin boundaries recall dreams (including nightmares) more often, report dreams that are more negative and emotionally intense, regard their dreams more favorably (i.e., as more meaningful and creative), and dream more frequently of verbal interaction with others.     

The Dream as Text, The Dream as Narrative

The concepts of text and narrative are reviewed in terms of their appropriate application to the study of dreams. It is proposed that, once experienced, all dreams are texts, but that not all of these texts are narratives. Blending Jung's proposal for the form of the average dream with basic terms from narratology, dream data are employed in order to examine the narrativity of dreams, and by way of inquiring into cognitive aspects of narrative structure. Questions about the relation between language and narrative structure on the one hand, and between dreaming and language on the other are also briefly taken up.     

Personality and Dreaming: Boundary Structure and Dream Content

Prior studies indicate that a personality dimension reflecting thin versus thick boundaries is related to global ratings of dream vividness, amount of emotion, and amount of interaction. In the present study, these relationships were examined by relating scores from the Boundary Questionnaire ( Hartmann, 1991) to dream content among 80 patients seen at a sleep disorders center. Thinness of boundaries was significantly correlated with dream length, vividness, amount of detail, and amount of emotion, and showed a trend towards correlation with aggressive interaction and nightmare-likeness. When dream length was statistically controlled, the relationships between boundary structure and dream content were no longer statistically significant, although amount of emotion and amount of detail showed a trend in the original direction. A principal components analysis was used to identify three factors in the dream content data (eigenvalues > 1.0). The first factor involved dream length, vividness, detail, and emotion; the second involved love/tender interaction and sexual interaction; and the third involved aggressive interaction. Thinness of boundaries showed a significant correlation with only the first factor. We suggest that the trait continuum ranging from thick to thin boundaries is similar to the state continuum running from focused waking thought to dreaming, and that both continua refer to the same aspects of cortical activity.     

Dream Practices in Medieval Tibet

This essay presents a variety of medieval Tibetan Buddhist dream practices culled from many different sources, such as medical texts, biographies, religious texts, and folklore. Some of this material is here translated into English for the first time. The dreaming techniques presented in these texts bring out religious and philosophical connections between body and consciousness. The range and diversity of the original sources required a broad interdisciplinary approach using literary studies, religious studies, philosophy, linguistics, and other disciplines.     

Dream Recall Frequency, Attitude Towards Dreams and Openness to Experience

The question whether personality dimensions explain the interindividual differences in dream recall frequency has often been investigated by dream researchers. The present findings confirm previous research which has shown that traits such as openness-to-experience and thin boundaries correlate substantially with dream recall frequency. However, correlation coefficients are small and are much larger if attitude towards dreams or a scale measuring different aspects of dream recall are considered. Thus, future studies should consider the differentiation between items measuring dream recall and related aspects and items measuring attitudes towards dreams. Schonbar's life-style hypothesis should be revised slightly: not dream recall frequency but attitude towards dreams and the way to deal with dreams are part of a broader life style.     

Virtual reality training of lucid dreaming

Metacognitive reflections on one''s current state of mind are largely absent during dreaming. Lucid dreaming as the exception to this rule is a rare phenomenon; however, its occurrence can be facilitated through cognitive training. A central idea of respective training strategies is to regularly question one''s phenomenal experience: is the currently experienced world real, or just a dream? Here, we tested if such lucid dreaming training can be enhanced with dream-like virtual reality (VR): over the course of four weeks, volunteers underwent lucid dreaming training in VR scenarios comprising dream-like elements, classical lucid dreaming training or no training. We found that VR-assisted training led to significantly stronger increases in lucid dreaming compared to the no-training condition. Eye signal-verified lucid dreams during polysomnography supported behavioural results. We discuss the potential mechanisms underlying these findings, in particular the role of synthetic dream-like experiences, incorporation of VR content in dream imagery serving as memory cues, and extended dissociative effects of VR session on subsequent experiences that might amplify lucid dreaming training during wakefulness.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation''.     

Effects of Somatosensory Stimulation on Dream Content in Gymnasts and Control Participants: Evidence of Vestibulomotor Adaptation in REM Sleep

Somatosensory stimulation of the leg muscles in REM sleep appears to perturb virtual orientation in dream experiences. According to our model of vestibulomotor adaptation (Sauvageau, Nielsen, & Montplaisir, 1996), the dreaming mind attempts to compensate for such destabilizing stimulation by increasing eye movement activity or by modifying dream content, among other possible reactions. Effective compensation may be more easily achieved by participants who are adapted to the disruptive stimulation or who possess highly developed vestibulomotor skills. To examine this possibility, we studied the effects of Somatosensory stimulation on the dreams of 6 gymnasts and 6 control participants aged 9 to 16 years. Results provide some support for the expectations that 1) imposed Somatosensory information is processed by the central nervous system in REM sleep, 2) unilateral stimulation induces an upset in virtual orientation, 3) gymnasts are more resistant to these disruptive effects of stimulation than are control participants, and 4) because of long-term adaptation, the dream content of gymnasts does not differ markedly from that of controls. Though preliminary and in need of replication, the findings are compatible with the notion that the developed vestibular skills of gymnasts protects them to some extent from the effects of a disruptive Somatosensory stimulus during sleep.     

Theory of Mind in Dreaming: Awareness of Feelings and Thoughts of Others in Dreams.

If the awareness of what others are thinking and the ability to attribute feelings to others characterizes both waking and dreaming consciousness, it suggests that a social species like man has a state-independent need for a theory of mind; that is, an ability to know that others have feelings. The authors performed 2 studies, the first of which consisted of 35 participants who submitted 320 dream reports containing more than 1,200 dream characters and the second consisted of 24 participants who submitted 151 dream reports with 543 dream events. Participants reported that as subjects in their own dreams they were aware that their dream characters had feelings and thoughts about them. This finding shows that awareness of what others are feeling is a robust aspect of consciousness that is maintained despite the changed chemistry and changed activation patterns of the brain's neuronal connections during dreaming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dumuzi's Dream: Dream Analysis in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamian civilization was the first to develop writing and the first from which literary texts remain, dating back to the late 3rd millennium B.C. Some of these texts contain accounts of dreams, especially of royal figures. The earliest of these texts, evidently the earliest recorded dream in history, is the dream of Dumuzi of Uruk. This dream is embedded within the framework of the larger epic of the Descent of Inanna, and not only is the dream text itself included but also its interpretation, by Dumuzi's sister Geshtin-anna. She appears to have played the role of a professional dream interpretress. There are also several cylinder seals that appear to depict the motifs of Dumuzi's dream. This article examines this dream and its interpretation within the Mesopotamian cultural context. It also compares the dream with several other well-known dream texts from Mesopotamia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)