Dream content: Reflections of the emotional and psychological states of earthquake survivors.

This study investigated dream narratives as reflections of the emotional and psychological states of earthquake survivors. Dreams and dreams imagery have reportedly been affected by the emotional and psychological trauma that the dreamer goes through. Dream narratives and dream content ratings used in earlier studies were utilized in this study. Narratives and content ratings were obtained from a sample of 27 volunteer survivors of the October 8, 2005 earthquake in Pakistan (Azad Kashmir area) and 27 volunteer controls from similar demographics. Three independent raters judged the dream narratives and dream content ratings. The judges rating were highly congruent (86.05). Findings revealed that the survivor group had more vivid, unpleasant, horrifying, and hostile dreams compared with the control group. However, there were no significant gender differences. The data suggest that a closer study of dreams can be used to understand the underlying trauma for effective interventions. In addition, interesting emergence of recurrent dreams was seen, which will be independently studied in future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of impactful dreams on self-perceptual depth and spiritual transformation.

Two studies contrasted the short-term effects of nightmares, existential dreams, and transcendent dreams (Busink & Kuiken, 1996; Kuiken & Sikora, 1993). Results from Study 1 indicated that existential dreams were more likely than mundane dreams, transcendent dreams, or nightmares to be followed by reported self-perceptual depth; also, transcendent dreams were more likely than mundane dreams, existential dreams, or nightmares to be followed by reported spiritual transformation. Results from Study 2 replicated these findings for existential dreams, indicating also that the type of spiritual transformation associated with transcendent dreams involved an ecstatic sense of release from everyday entanglements. Both existential dreams and transcendent dreams moved the dreamer toward an unbounded sense of life in all things, as did lucid forms of all three dream types. Such unbounded enlivenment suggests an aesthetic substrate to the changes induced by each of these dream types. The contrasting short-term effects of impactful dream types may require integration into a comprehensive model of long-term dream function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Baylor: A Note About Dreams of Scientific Problem Solving

Creative problem-solving dreams virtually always occur only after the dreamer has done extensive work on the issue awake. Most typically, a person is stuck at one particular step of a multiple phase process and the dream solves that step. The dream of Dmitri Mendeleev about The Periodic Table of the Elements is no exception. All accounts of this event agree that he'd worked for years on the Table, produced other drafts, but that he attributed the version he was most satisfied with to a dream. It is less clear whether Kedrov is correct in his reconstruction that it was the reversal of columns vs. rows which the dream provided. Accounts of dreams from contemporary scientists and inventors are a richer source for the detail required to generalize about the role of dreams in problem solving.     

Dream Intensity Inventory and Chinese people's dream experience frequencies.

The present study aimed to devise a parsimonious instrument for evaluating both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of dream experiences and to quantify Chinese people's dream experiences in ways that facilitated cross-cultural comparisons. The Dream Intensity Inventory was developed and administered to 348 Chinese university students. Individual differences in dream recall frequency were observed, with some participants recalling dreams almost every morning whereas others recalled dreams less than once a month. By contrast, the Chinese participants exhibited less diverse dream awareness frequencies. Multiple dreams in a single night and nightmares were found to be prevalent among the Chinese participants. On the other hand, fewer than half of the participants experienced regularly voluntary control over dream activities and consciousness. The factor analyses of the items in the Dream Intensity Inventory resulted in three readily interpreted factors, which were labeled as the "dream quantity," "altered dream episodes," and "dream vividness" subscales, respectively. When compared with men, women participants had higher frequencies of regular dream experiences including dream awareness, nightmares, and multiple dreams, as measured by the dream quantity subscale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representation of the self in REM and NREM dreams.

The authors hypothesized that representations of the Self (or the dreamer) in dreams would change systematically, from a prereflective form of Self to more complex forms, as a function of both age and sleep state (REM vs. non-REM). These hypotheses were partially confirmed. While the authors found that all the self-concept-related dream content indexes derived from the Hall/Van de Castle dream content scoring system did not differ significantly between the dreams of children and adults, adult Selves were more likely to engage in "successful" social interactions. The Self never acted as aggressor in NREM dream states and was almost always the befriender in friendly interactions in NREM dreams. Conversely, the REM-related dream Self preferred aggressive encounters. Our results suggests that while prereflective forms of Self are the norm in children's dreams, two highly complex forms of Self emerge in REM and NREM dreams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dreams of female university students: Content analysis and the relationship to discovery via the Ullman method.

This study extended the research on the dreams of students by examining the actual content of female students' dreams and to what extent the content related to discovery via the Ullman method. Further analyses were conducted to examine what content categories significantly predicted discovery. Participants were 56 female undergraduate students who provided a dream and participated in the Ullman method of group interpretation. Dream content was analyzed via the Hall and Van de Castle method of content analysis. Many significant correlations were observed among dream content categories, discovery categories, and dream content and discovery categories together. Findings were representative of the sample being examined and provided evidence of the continuity hypothesis. Results both support and extend previous research on the dreams of students. Furthermore, specific categories of dream content were found to significantly predict discovery categories. Limitations and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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.     

Boundary Questionnaire Results in the Mentally Healthy Elderly

The Hartmann Boundary Questionnaire was administered twice, with six months in between, to 61 Swiss subjects over 60 years of age taking part in an investigation into the effects of dream-telling on five variables: well-being, sleep quality, sleep duration, dream recall and dream tone. In addition, dream epoch, i.e., the age of life of the dreamer as perceived in the dream, was recorded for those who told dreams. In addition to this study group in which the members told dreams there were two control groups. Those in the first control group were asked about well-being and sleep quality but not about dreams or dreaming, while those in the second control group were additionally asked how many dreams they had retained, how frequently they had occurred and about the dream tone (pleasant/unpleasant). All study participants were given the Hartmann Boundary Questionnaire at the beginning (pre-test) and again at the end of the six month study period (post-test). The retest reliability was high (r = 0.872 for the whole sample). We report here the relationships obtained between the questionnaire scores and age, group membership, gender and the number of dreams that were retained over a 26 week testing period. No significant correlations were found for age, group membership or dream recall. There was, however, a small, significant boundary score difference between women and men for the pre-test, indicating thinner boundaries for women, but this difference was no longer significant in the post-test.     

Using dreams in cognitive behavioral psychotherapy: Theory, method, and examples.

Dream analysis can be a fruitful complementary technique in cognitive–behavioral therapy, providing it is based on a theoretical conception of dreaming and an interpretation method that are both compatible with the principles and methodology of CBT. The present paper first presents some aspects of a cognitive conception of dreaming explaining the occurrence and specificities of dream representations by their production processes. The next section describes an interpretation method that gives the patients the opportunity to find some sources and meanings of their dreams. Finally examples are given of the different ways in which the result of a dream interpretation contributed to therapy. Thanks to their condensed and often exaggerated treatment of a theme, dreams often facilitate becoming aware of cognitive distortions and schemas and help to proceed to cognitive restructuring. They also give to the therapists an opportunity to underline the patient’s resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream content and memory processing: Dream lag effects within a single night and across several nights: A pilot study.

Dream content may reflect elements of memory processing occurring within a single night and across several days or weeks. One 19-year-old healthy female college student kept a daily diary, a sleep diary, and recorded her dreams for 2 months. A preset alarm clock allowed her to sample dreams from both early NREM-rich and late REM-rich sleep. Dreams were examined for memory elements that were similar to diary entries. There were 55 scorable dreams obtained during 25 nights. Matches between dream elements and daytime events occurred quite frequently depending on dream element. Dream characters, actions, themes, and settings more often matched daytime memories than dream objects, emotions, or events. Matches were also time dependent. Emotions appeared in dreams after the subject experienced them sooner than all other elements (1.5 days), while objects took the longest to appear in dreams (3.5 days). With respect to within night cognitive processing, 42% of scorable nights contained the same memory elements in the first and last dreams and 8% of scorable nights contained the same emotion within the same context between an early and late dream. Selected dream elements appear to reflect memory processing occurring throughout the night and over the course of several days. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream interpretation sessions for college students in Taiwan: Who benefits and what volunteer clients view as most and least helpful.

The purpose of the study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Attitudes Toward Dream measure (ATD) and examine the outcome of dream interpretation for college students in Taiwan. In a sample of 574 college students, factor analysis revealed a single factor for the ATD-Chinese. In the second stage, 60 volunteer clients were assigned randomly to an experimental or control condition. Significant differences were found between experimental and control conditions for postsession ATD-Chinese scores. Initial attitudes toward dreams did not influence perceived gains from dream sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The central image makes "big" dreams big: The central image as the emotional heart of the dream.

"Big dreams" are hard to define. This paper considers "big" dreams under several more easily definable subcategories: memorable dreams; important dreams (labeled by dreamer); significant dreams; and impactful dreams. Past studies are reviewed, and five new preliminary studies are presented showing that a powerful Central Image (CI) distinguishes "big" dreams in all subcategories. 1) Dreams labeled "important" by the dreamer have higher CI intensity than dreams labeled "unimportant." 2) Dreams labeled "especially significant" have especially high CI intensity. 3) Impactful dreams (leading to a new discovery) have a very high CI intensity. 4) The dreams of people who score very "thin" on the Boundary Questionnaire (BQ)--sometimes called "dream-people"--have higher CI intensity than the dreams of people who score "thick." 5) In a separate, larger group, there is a significant positive correlation between CI intensity and "thinness." It appears that CI intensity is an important measure of the "bigness" of dreams. The present results are consistent with the Contemporary Theory of Dreaming which states that dreams involve making connections guided by emotion, that the Ci of the dream pictures the emotion, and that CI intensity measures the power of the underlying emotion. "Big" dreams are dreams with great emotional power and have powerful Central Images. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 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)     

The Significant Dream as Emblem of Uniqueness: The Fertilizer Does Not Explain the Flower

Recent, renewed attention to big or significant dreams calls into question many widely held assumptions about dreams. This essay focuses on the assumption that dreams can be accounted for in terms of the dominant emotions and concerns of the dreamer at the time of the dream. That assumption is found to be inadequate to account for at least some significant dream experiences. Archetypal psychology's aesthetic, phenomenological approach to dreams is presented as providing an instructive, illuminating alternative for understanding the on-going significance of significant dreams.     

Trauma, dreaming, and psychological distress among Kurdish children.

The authors examined (a) how traumatic events are associated with children's dream structure and content and (b) which dream characteristics might moderate the negative impact of traumatic events on mental health. Participants were 122 Kurdish children (9-17 years old, M = 13.02, SD = 1.66). Their dreams were collected during 1 week using a semistructured dream diary and scored according to the dream atmosphere, the role of the dreamer, bizarreness, narrative quality, fragmentation and resolution, and content such as themes of death, persecution and rejection, hostility, and anxiety. The results substantiated the hypothesis that children exposed to a high level of traumatic events would report dreams characterized by unpleasant atmosphere, fragmented flow, and low levels of bizarre narrative quality. Pleasant dreams containing complete narratives and happy endings moderated the negative impact of traumatic events on children's mental health. The authors argue that dreaming allows cognitive-emotional processing of traumatic events and may thus enhance child well-being in war conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

REM dreaming in the transition from late childhood to adolescence: A longitudinal study.

In this longitudinal developmental study, 12 boys and 12 girls provided REM dreams at 3 age levels: 9-11, 11-13, and 13-15 years. A total of 551 dreams were coded by 2 independent raters using C. Hall and R. Van de Castle's (1966) content categories. In addition, ratings of dream realism, the dreamer's self-involvement, and the frequency of speech acts were carried out. There was little change in the basic content categories of REM dreams. However, the frequency of unrealistic dream elements declined, whereas the ability to inventively put together separate contents of the memory system to produce meaningful scenes increased. Self-representation changed from passive experience to interactive involvement, along with an increasing number of speech acts by the dreamer. The similarity of the findings with Hall and Van de Castle categories to findings with home dreams from the same 24 participants is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)