Physiological measures of emotion in sleep mentation: A pilot study in research methods.

Previous research in the field of sleep mentation (dreaming) has focused on the use of subjective reports of experience for measuring emotion in dream content. However, emotions are seldom explicitly mentioned in dream reports, and a more substantial method for empirically assessing the emotionality of sleep mentation imagery to the individual is necessary to assess qualitative differences between REM and NREM mentation. Here a previously established research method has been compared with a physiological measure of emotional arousal in order to determine whether physiological measures might be used as a reliable research tool for characterizing the emotional salience of dream images to the dreamer. Findings suggest that the use of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) may be a valuable research tool for assessing emotion in sleep mentation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Dreaming - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Source Type: research