The Dreams of Blind Men and Women: A Replication and Extension of Previous Findings

Drawing on a sample of 372 dreams from 15 blind adults, we present two separate analyses that replicate and extend findings from previous studies. The first analysis employed DreamSearch, a software program designed for use with dream narratives, to examine the appearance of the five sensory modalities. It revealed that those blind since birth or very early childhood had (1) no visual imagery and (2) a very high percentage of gustatory, olfactory, and tactual sensory references. The second analysis found that both male and female participants differed from their sighted counterparts in the same ways on several Hall and Van de Castle (1966) coding categories, including a high percentage of locomotion/transportation dreams that contained at least one dreamer-involved misfortune. The findings on sensory references and dreamer-involved misfortunes in locomotion/transportation dreams are interpreted as evidence for the continuity between dream content and waking cognition.     

The Home Dreams and Waking Fantasies of Boys and Girls Between Ages 9 and 15: A Longitudinal Study

In this longitudinal developmental study, 12 boys and 12 girls provided home dreams and waking fantasies at 3 age levels: 9–11, 11–13, and 13–15. A total of 299 dreams and 286 fantasies were coded by 2 independent raters using Hall and Van de Castle (1966) content categories. In addition, word counts and bizarreness ratings were completed. There were very few changes in the dreams or waking fantasies of either boys or girls, but dream reports were longer at ages 13–15, the aggression/friendliness percent increased over the course of the study, joint-sex peer groups became more frequent, and girls showed a decline in animal percent. The tendency in a wide range of societies for men to dream mostly about other men and for women to dream equally of women and men was found in both the dreams and waking fantasies. Dreams and fantasies differed markedly, with dreams containing more outdoor and unfamiliar settings, and more bizarreness. In dreams the children tended to portray themselves as victims of aggression and recipients of friendliness, but in fantasies they took a more active role as aggressors and befrienders. It is suggested that the children in this study portrayed themselves in their dreams as they conceived of themselves in everyday life, while in their waking fantasies they imagined themselves as they would have liked to be.     

Rehearsal of dreams and waking events similarly improves the quality but not the quantity of autobiographical recall.

Salient dreams are often discussed and ruminated upon over time, especially when they feature in dream work or therapy. The present study investigated the effects of rehearsal over time on dream memories, as compared to memories for waking experiences. Participants were instructed to complete a dream and waking episodic event diary over two weeks. A rehearsal group (n = 27) were instructed to read through their reports after recording them. A control group (n = 28) were instructed not to look at their reports. A surprise recall task demonstrated that rehearsal reduced significantly the detail of dream, but not waking event, reports. It maintained episodic richness for dreams. Furthermore, rehearsed dream and event reports corresponded significantly more closely with original reports than controls. These data indicate that while rehearsal may not increase dream recall over time, it may influence the phenomenology of memories that are subsequently recalled, such that a rehearsed memory is subsequently recalled, rather than the original experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing the dream-lag effect for REM and NREM stage 2 dreams

This study investigates evidence, from dream reports, for memory consolidation during sleep. It is well-known that events and memories from waking life can be incorporated into dreams. These incorporations can be a literal replication of what occurred in waking life, or, more often, they can be partial or indirect. Two types of temporal relationship have been found to characterize the time of occurrence of a daytime event and the reappearance or incorporation of its features in a dream. These temporal relationships are referred to as the day-residue or immediate incorporation effect, where there is the reappearance of features from events occurring on the immediately preceding day, and the dream-lag effect, where there is the reappearance of features from events occurring 5-7 days prior to the dream. Previous work on the dream-lag effect has used spontaneous home recalled dream reports, which can be from Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (REM) and from non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (NREM). This study addresses whether the dream-lag effect occurs only for REM sleep dreams, or for both REM and NREM stage 2 (N2) dreams. 20 participants kept a daily diary for over a week before sleeping in the sleep laboratory for 2 nights. REM and N2 dreams collected in the laboratory were transcribed and each participant rated the level of correspondence between every dream report and every diary record. The dream-lag effect was found for REM but not N2 dreams. Further analysis indicated that this result was not due to N2 dream reports being shorter, in terms of number of words, than the REM dream reports. These results provide evidence for a 7-day sleep-dependent non-linear memory consolidation process that is specific to REM sleep, and accord with proposals for the importance of REM sleep to emotional memory consolidation.     

Dream emotions, waking emotions, personality characteristics and well-being--A positive psychology approach.

The study aimed to discover whether personality characteristics and waking emotions relate to dreaming emotions. There were 123 participants, ranging in age from 17 to 82 years. It was hypothesized that participants with significant positive emotional trait and state ratings in waking life would experience more positive dreams. Data collection utilized diaries and questionnaires, including Hartmann's Boundary Questionnaire, IPIP Emotional Stability Scale, Staats' Hope Scale, Adult Dispositional Hope Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to assess personality and attitudinal characteristics. Participants recorded and rated their waking and dream emotions over a 3-week period. Median correlations between corresponding waking and dream emotions were .58 for positive emotions and .47 for negative emotions. There were also low, but significant correlations between some personality characteristics and participants' tendency to experience positive or negative emotions in dreams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of Outcome of Dream Interpretation Sessions: Volunteer Client Characteristics, Dream Characteristics, and Type of Interpretation

105 volunteer clients completed single sessions of dream interpretation using the Hill (1996) model, with half randomly assigned to waking life interpretation and the other half to parts of self interpretation in the insight stage of the Hill model. No differences were found between waking life and parts of self interpretations, suggesting that therapists can use either type of dream interpretation. Volunteer clients who had positive attitudes toward dreams and presented pleasant dreams had better session outcome; in addition, volunteer clients who had pleasant dreams gained more insight into their dreams. Results suggest that therapists doing single sessions of dream interpretation need to be cautious about working with dreams when volunteer clients have negative attitudes toward dreams and present unpleasant dreams.     

Content analysis of dreams and waking narratives.

This study investigated the specificity of dream content and its continuity with waking life. For each subject (125 men and 125 women, between the ages of 19 and 29 years), a dream and a waking episode were collected according to “the most recent dream” method (Hartmann, Elkin, & Garg, 1991), which was also applied to “a recent life episode.” Both kinds of narratives were analyzed through the application of the Hall–Van de Castle System (1966) and a typical content analysis (a compendium of the most important typical dream taxonomies). In dreams, typical situations involved the dreamer trying to perform some physical action, most frequently with difficulties in mastering the task. Affective relationships and hostile interactions with an enemy were shared by both narratives, but cognitive activities were uncommon in both cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Big dreams: An analysis using central image intensity, content analysis, and word searches.

The authors provide empirical data to help answer the question of what distinguishes “big dreams” (Jung, 1974) from ordinary dreams. Reported here are the results of a multifaceted quantitative analysis of 162 most recent dreams and 162 most memorable dreams gathered from the same group of individuals. This matched collection of recent and memorable dream reports was analyzed by a novel combination of three quantitative methods: Hartmann's (1998, 2008) research on central images, Hall and Van de Castle's (1966) content analysis, and Bulkeley's (2009b) word search approach. Using these different methods of analysis on the same two sets of dreams provided an unusually detailed portrait of the basic patterns of big dreams. The results suggest that big dreams are distinguished by a tendency toward “primal” qualities of form and content: more intense imagery, more nature references, more physical aggression, more family characters, more fantastic/imaginary beings, and more magical happenings, along with less high-order cognition and less connection to ordinary daily surroundings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A relationship between nightmare content and somatic stimuli in a sleep-disordered population: A preliminary study.

This study aimed to examine the influence of specific sleep disorders on dream content. The authors hypothesized that: (a) waking somatic concerns influence dream content and (b) somatic stimulation associated with specific sleep disorders influence dream content items. The subjects (N = 124) were included if they demonstrated obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy, an EEG arousal disorder during sleep, or periodic leg movements during sleep (PLMS), based on standard polysomnography. The 42-item Wahler Physical Symptom Inventory was used to quantify somatic concerns. Dream content and frequency was assessed with a 37-item Dream Questionnaire. Ten symptom-dream pairs were selected as mutually relevant and subjected to chi-square analysis. 84.6% of all subjects reported having bad dreams (N = 105). A significant proportion of patients who complain of excessive perspiration dream about perspiring, and significant proportions of those who report difficulty breathing while awake dream about feelings of choking and suffocation. Recurring dreams and dreams of paralysis are significantly more prominent in patients with narcolepsy. Patients with sleep apnea do not dream of choking/feelings of suffocation with greater frequency than nonapneics. These findings suggest that somatic stimulation associated with specific sleep disorders appears to have an inconsistent influence on certain dream content items. Furthermore, dream mentation appears to feature waking concerns, rather that being related to events associated with during sleep disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forgotten fantasies? Modernity, reenchantment, and dream consciousness.

Why are dreams easily forgotten or difficult to remember? Dream memory is usually attributed to stored fantasies and imaginations in sleep that have distant or no relevance to waking consciousness. Lack of dream recall suggests the modern emphasis on the significance of waking realities at the expense of oneiric experiences. Yet, in the ancient West and many contemporary non-Western societies, dreaming constitutes an unbroken chain of memory to the organization of everyday life. However, reenchantment in the modern context has given new importance to dream consciousness as vital to the development of the creative self. Emphasis on dream practices or dreamwork as leading to various forms of dream control suggests a quest for mastery of inner space. In this regard, training and motivation in dream recall provide an essential tool for advancing the self's well-being. Dreams are not treated as forgotten fantasies but dynamic pathways to new meanings of the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Video game play and dream bizarreness.

In a series of studies, J. Gackenbach has been mapping the effects of heavy video game play on consciousness, including dreaming. The reason that gamers are being investigated is that they represent a group of people who are engaging in the most immersive media experience widely available today. With its audio and visual interactive nature as well as the long hours often required to master a game, they are an opportune group to study media effects upon consciousness. In this study, the focus was on dream bizarreness. Dream bizarreness has been variously thought to be the differentiator between waking and dreaming thought, an indication of creativity, and most recently, as a model for solving the binding problem in consciousness. Using A. Revonsuo’s and C. Salmivalli’s scale for dream content analysis, it was found that high-end gamers evidenced more bizarre dreams than did low-end gamers in two of three types of bizarreness categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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.     

Cerebral specialization during lucid dreaming: A right hemisphere hypothesis.

Research has shown that certain individuals are able to carry out prearranged tasks while lucid dreaming, and that these tasks produce physiological effects on the body similar to what is observed during waking. It was hypothesized that the difficulty of performing cerebrally lateralized tasks during a lucid dream would vary with the dominant hemisphere for that task, with less difficulty for right hemisphere tasks. Twenty-seven participants rated the difficulty of performing three matched pairs of left hemisphere and right hemisphere tasks, first in a lucid dream, and later in their waking imagination. Results indicated right hemisphere dominance during lucid dreaming, especially among right-handed participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationships between dream content and physical health, mood, and self-construal.

Research is presented that examines the relationship among dream content, physical health, mood, and self-construal. Participants were 27 undergraduate students who completed the Medical Outcomes SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36), the Profile of Mood States Scale (POMS-SF), and the Self-Construal Scale (SCS). Each participant handed in four dream reports, which were analyzed according to the Hall and Van de Castle (1966) system of content analysis. Multiple significant correlations were observed between dream content and the SF-36, the POMS-SF, and the SCS. Most notable were the findings between physical health and dream content. Participants displaying poor physical health reported more bodily misfortunes, injuries and illnesses, medical themes, and body parts in their dreams. Findings support continuity between dreams and waking life physical and mental functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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.     

How deep is the rift between conscious states in sleep and wakefulness? Spontaneous experience over the sleep–wake cycle

Whether we are awake or asleep is believed to mark a sharp divide between the types of conscious states we undergo in either behavioural state. Consciousness in sleep is often equated with dreaming and thought to be characteristically different from waking consciousness. Conversely, recent research shows that we spend a substantial amount of our waking lives mind wandering, or lost in spontaneous thoughts. Dreaming has been described as intensified mind wandering, suggesting that there is a continuum of spontaneous experience that reaches from waking into sleep. This challenges how we conceive of the behavioural states of sleep and wakefulness in relation to conscious states. I propose a conceptual framework that distinguishes different subtypes of spontaneous thoughts and experiences independently of their occurrence in sleep or waking. I apply this framework to selected findings from dream and mind-wandering research. I argue that to assess the relationship between spontaneous thoughts and experiences and the behavioural states of sleep and wakefulness, we need to look beyond dreams to consider kinds of sleep-related experience that qualify as dreamless. I conclude that if we consider the entire range of spontaneous thoughts and experiences, there appears to be variation in subtypes both within as well as across behavioural states. Whether we are sleeping or waking does not appear to strongly constrain which subtypes of spontaneous thoughts and experiences we undergo in those states. This challenges the conventional and coarse-grained distinction between sleep and waking and their putative relation to conscious states.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation’.     

Investigation of dream reports after transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCs) during slow wave sleep (SWS)

Despite being a prominent feature of REM sleep, dreams have also been reported from NREM sleep. Neuroimaging studies have revealed regional patterns of brain activation and deactivation during REM and NREM sleep, with frontal and posterior parietal cortices implicated as brain regions involved in dreaming. From our recent stage 2 study it was revealed that tDCs of these brain regions during this stage of sleep resulted in an increase in reported dream imagery. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of simultaneous anodal and cathodal tDCs applied to the right posterior parietal and frontal cortex (respectively) during SWS on dream recall. After 60 s of continuous SWS, participants were administered either tDCs, low tDCs, or blank control, followed by a 60 s delay period to confirm SWS before waking the participant for dream report collection. These conditions were administered in a counterbalanced order across the night. Analyses revealed no significant difference between conditions in the three dream measures. However, an analysis of visualizable nouns to total words revealed a significantly higher ratio in the low tDCs condition compared to the tDCs condition. It was concluded that tDCs had no appreciable effect on reported dream imagery. However, such findings are preliminary as they are from a research protocol which is in the process of refinement with more definitive results expected in future. Thus, further studies should now investigate the application of tDCs using improved methodologies and to other cortical regions implicated in the process of dreaming.