Dreaming of being chased reflects waking-life experiences related to negative relationships with others metaphorically.

Introduction: It has long been argued that there are dream metaphors which express waking-life experiences indirectly. Most of empirical evidence concerning this topic was in a qualitative way, while few studies explored the topic in a quantitative way. Under this background, we investigated whether dreaming of the typical theme 'being chased or pursued' was a metaphorical expression for waking-life experiences related to 'negative relationships with others'. Methods: One hundred and sixty participants reported their waking-life experiences and dreams for a single day. Following this, two external judges rated whether there were any elements related to 'negative relationships with others' in both waking-life experiences and dreams. In addition, the judges assessed if there was any content related to 'being chased or pursued' in both waking-life experiences and dreams. Results: The frequency of dreaming of 'negative relationships with others' was higher than the frequency of the same topic in waking-life experiences, which in turn was higher than the frequency of typical theme dreaming of 'being chased or pursued'. In addition, 'negative relationships with others' in waking-life experiences were correlated with both dreaming of 'being chased or pursued', and 'negative relationships with others' in dreams. Conclusion: These results suggested that the typical theme 'being chased or pursued' in dreams may represent some waking-life experiences metaphorically. In addition, the results support the threat simulation theory of dreaming, which suggests that threatening events in waking life increase the possibility of threatening events in dreams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]