Search

Dreaming is a personal experience during sleep that can, for various reasons, be shared upon awakening with other people. A sample of 5,255 American adults with diverse sociodemographic and ethnic backgrounds completed an online survey including an item eliciting the frequency of dream sharing. According to these data, dream sharing is fairly common among the general population—23% of the sample reported sharing dreams at least once a week. However, the practice is not universal, as 24% of the sample reported never sharing their dreams. The frequency of dream sharing was affected by a variety of factors such as age, gender, dream recall frequency, attitude toward dreams, education, relationship status, and ethnicity. As this is the first quantitative study reporting cultural differences in dream sharing frequency (e.g., Hispanics share their dreams more often than Whites), it would be very interesting to carry out surveys in different countries to study cultural effects on dream recall frequency and other dream variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dream recall frequency showed high interindividual differences, and research has focused, among other variables, on personality traits for explaining these differences. The present study included 2,492 participants measuring the Big Five personality factors, dream recall frequency, and attitude toward dreams. The findings support the notion of dream recall and especially attitude toward dreaming is part of a bigger lifestyle characterized by openness to experience. Although the relationship between dream recall frequency and neuroticism is explained by nightmare frequency, the question as to why attitude toward dreams is related to neuroticism is still unanswered and warrants further studies. It is also not understood why conscientiousness was related to dream recall and attitude toward dreams. Overall, studying samples with diverse educational backgrounds and large age ranges seems necessary in order to validate the findings obtained from student samples in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dreaming plays a role in all major world religions, so it was expected that dream recall frequency was positively related to a measure of spirituality ("Transpersonal Trust"). The findings of the online survey (N = 528) indicate that there is a relationship between spirituality and dream recall, possibly mediated by mindfulness skills. Two factors might explain this relationship: First, dreams can provide spiritual inspiration and, second, spiritual practices like meditation can increase dream recall. Interestingly, mindfulness was related to lower nightmare frequencies. It would be very interesting to study dreaming in persons undergoing intense spiritual training with regard to, on the one hand, possible beneficial effects of spiritual dreams and, on the other hand, the effect of the spiritual training on dream content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-sectional studies indicate that dream recall frequency declines with age; longitudinal studies, however, are scarce. The present data from 2 online dream studies in the same panel carried out independently (N = 1,340 completed both surveys) indicate that there is an overall decline in dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and lucid dreaming frequency, even though for the majority o f the sample the 3 variables remained quite stable over this time interval. The reasons for this decline are yet poorly understood. Future longitudinal studies should include cognitive measures (visual memory), personality measures (thin boundaries), sleep parameters, stress measures, and attitude toward dreams scales to test whether changes in these measures might explain the changes in the recall measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to demonstrate that dream images can be retrieved from virtually all REM episodes across the night in any neurologically healthy individuals and that high-density electroencephalography is superior to the standard polysom-nography in identifying sleep events and localizing wave sources. Seven young adults, who rarely recalled their dream experiences, volunteered to attend a screening interview, keep a nightly log, and sleep at the laboratory for 3 consecutive nights. Awakenings were made on the third night, the first 2 nights serving the purpose of adaptation. By utilizing the electroencephalographic system with 256 channels and the awakening protocol that accommodates the normal lengthening REM periods over the night, a very high retrieval rate of REM mentation was obtained--that is, 94.3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the large number of studies addressing gender differences in dream recall and other dream-related variables, research regarding whether these differences might be affected by sex role orientation is rather scarce. The findings of the present online study clearly indicate that sex role orientation, femininity/expressivity, and masculinity/instrumentality affects dream variables such as dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, dream tone, and emotional intensity as well as attitude toward dreaming. Expressivity was strongly correlated with the emotional intensity of dreams whereas instrumentality was associated with more positively toned dreams; a finding which supports the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. The analyses provided support for the idea that attitude toward dreams might moderate the effect of sex role orientation (femininity/expressivity) and biological sex on dream recall frequency. As sex role orientation did not completely explain the gender differences, it will be fruitful to study other variables like the processing of emotional information in the brain or gender-specific dream socialization in order to understand the gender differences in dreaming more fully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitude toward dreams is a variable closely linked to dream recall frequency. Even though research has looked into different aspects of this variable, studies investigating positive and negative attitudes in the general population are still lacking. The present representative survey (N = 2,019) indicates that the general emotional tone of dreams is quite closely related to the attitude toward dreams--a relationship neglected by previous studies. It seems very important to differentiate between positive and negative attitudes toward dreaming, and it also seems very important to differentiate between attitudes toward positively toned and negatively toned dreams. In order to understand the underlying mechanisms of the stable gender difference, for example, it seems promising to study of dream socialization--that is, the process of how children learn about attitudes toward dreaming from other people (family, friends) or media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to recall a dream upon waking up in the morning has been linked to a broad variety of factors such as personality, creativity, sleep behavior, and cognitive function. As dreaming has been associated with the right hemisphere, it has been proposed that left-handed persons would have easier access to their dreams. However, previous empirical data support an association of dream-recall frequency with right-handedness. In the present sample of 1,375 participants, right-handedness and mixed/inconsistent handedness were associated with higher dream-recall frequency than were left-handed persons (especially pronounced in the subgroup of adolescents), partly confirming previous findings. As handedness is related to other factors such as preterm birth, which can affect brain functioning, a broad battery of cognitive tests would be desirable to further characterize samples of left-handers, right-handers and persons with inconsistent handedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report presents findings from a survey of 2992 demographically diverse American adults who answered questions about dream recall and questions about their political views. Participants who described themselves as "liberal" or "progressive" (n = 802) were compared to people who described themselves as "conservative" or "very conservative" (n -- 1335). Previous studies have suggested that political liberals tend to have higher dream recall than political conservatives. The results of the present survey provide new evidence in support of this hypothesis. On all 11 questions asked about different types of dream recall, people on the left reported higher frequencies than people on the right. The same pattern was found when the two groups were divided by gender: Liberal males reported consistently higher dream recall than conservative males, as did liberal females compared to conservative females. These findings indicate that political ideology is at least one of the cultural factors influencing dream recall frequencies among American adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast variety of books on dreamwork and dream interpretation suggests that a considerable percentage of the general population is interested in reading these books. Empirical research in this area is relatively scarce. The present representative survey (N = 2,019) indicated that about 8% of the general population have read about dream interpretation in order to learn more about their dreams, with women reading about dream interpretation more often than men. This gender difference was not explained by differences in dream recall frequency. In addition, single people as well as people with high nightmare frequencies read about dreams more often. Future research should focus on the possible benefits of reading about dream interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent meta-analysis showed a substantial and robust gender difference in dream recall frequency of medium effect size, that is, women tend to recall their dreams more often than men. The question arises as to what factors might explain this difference. Two previous studies indicate that interest in dreams plays an important role. The present study found a significant effect of frequency of nocturnal awakenings and interest in dreams on the gender difference in dream recall frequency. In addition, neuroticism and depressive mood were associated with the gender difference on the aspects of a dream recall scale and interest in dreams. Longitudinal studies are necessary to validate the present findings, especially regarding their causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a large meta-analysis showed that women tend to recall their dreams more often than men. Despite this robust finding, studies focused on explaining the gender difference in dream recall frequency are scarce. The present findings of an online survey indicate that sex role orientation-expressivity/femininity-was related to dream recall frequency but did not fully explain the gender difference in dream recall frequency. Future studies should investigate other variables-in addition to sex role orientation-like verbal memory, recall of emotional experiences, and/or frequency of talking about emotional matters that might play a role in explaining the gender difference in dream recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A methodological issue in research relating daytime mood to dream content is the question of whether mood congruency effects that is, recalling more negative events if the current mood is more negative-also play a role in the dream recall process. This study adopted an indirect approach by testing the hypothesis that interindividual differences in mood congruency effects in a memory task carried out in the daytime correlate with mood congruency effects in dream recall (recalling more negative dream emotions, as one would predict on the basis of the current stress level or overall mood state). The findings, however, did not support the hypothesis of mood congruency effects and, thus, rule out that the findings regarding the continuity hypothesis of dreaming are biased by selective recall. Studies with different methodological approaches are necessary to validate this study's findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although several studies reported a significant effect with regard to the gender difference in an interest in dreams, the generalizability of these studies is limited because mainly students were recruited as participants. In this study, gender differences with regard to interest in dream interpretation as an indicator of interest in dreams in general have been demonstrated in a representative sample. There was, however, a significant age-gender interaction, indicating that interest in dreams might not be a potent variable for explaining gender differences in dream recall. In future studies, the course of interest in dreams over the life span and any associated gender differences should be investigated using carefully designed scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research in the field of lucid dreams has produced several techniques which are claimed to be a means of inducing lucid dreams, but there have been only a small number of reported studies which have evaluated their effectiveness. The present study investigated the effects of one of the most promising of these, the reflection-intention technique, which is specifically designed to increase the frequency of dream and lucid dream recall. The sample here consisted of 20 participants whose frequencies of normal dream recall and lucid dream recall were recorded before, during and after a two week training program by using a dream questionnaire and a dream journal. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance showed a significant increase in both dream recall frequency (F2,38 = 22.09, p <.05) and lucid dream recall frequency (F2,38 = 5.96, p < .05). Because there are some reservations concerning the small sample size and a possible subject bias, the findings here concerning the efficiency of the lucid dream induction program are regarded as only suggestive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a large number of studies investigating factors affecting dream recall frequency (DRF) have been carried out, research investigating the reliability and stability of DRF is scarce. Dream diaries of 196 participants kept over at least 28 days were analyzed. The results of the present study indicate that a time period of 2 weeks was sufficient to obtain reliable measurements of interindividual differences in DRF. Despite the high day-to-day fluctuations of dream recall, the stability of this variable was very high. Studies that investigate the stability of DRF by means of other methodological approaches (e.g., questionnaire scales, laboratory awakenings) and over longer time periods (e.g., 1 year) should be carried out to complement the present findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the relationship between the recalled frequency of sensory modalities experienced in dreams and waking imagery abilities. Five hundred thirty-one undergraduate students completed 4 imagery ability tests and a dream recall questionnaire containing a question on the frequency of experience of the sensory modalities in dreams. A k-means cluster analysis of the Dream Sense Modality Scale indicated that the participants fell into 3 groups: the major modalities group, whose dreams were entirely visual, auditory, and kinesthetic; the all modalities group, who experienced all sense modalities in dreams; and the no modalities group, whose dreams were without sensory content. The participants' scores on the imagery tests in the 3 groups showed significant intergroup differences. The all modalities group showed the highest levels of ability in evoking vivid imagery and controlling visual imagery and the most frequent use of visual imagery compared with the other two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]