Predictive value of the dreams of Canadian soldiers.
The current study investigates what soldiers dream about (dream content), what they learn about waking life from their dreams (discovery), and the relationships among these variables. Previous research has found soldiers had more dream imagery relating to war and their experiences overseas compared with civilians. As predicted with the continuity hypothesis, specific dream content reflected their waking-day activities. The current study expands on this research, examining the predictive value of their dream content for their waking-day discovery. Twenty-five combat arms soldiers with operational experience in Afghanistan (...
Source: Dreaming - August 17, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dale, Allyson L.; DeCicco, Teresa L.; Miller, Nicolle J.; Tavakoli, Paniz Source Type: research
Aggression in nightmares and unpleasant dreams and in people reporting recurrent nightmares.
We used unique data sets from Dreamboard and SurveyMonkey to test the hypothesis that aggression levels would vary significantly with content of recurrent nightmares, nonrecurrent nightmares, and unpleasant dreams. Exactly 475 nightmares and 433 unpleasant dreams were collected from Dreamboard users, while 135 nightmares were collected from individuals who reported having recurrent nightmares via a SurveyMonkey survey. Results demonstrated that physical aggression and anxiety levels were significantly higher for nightmares from individuals who reported recurrent nightmares relative to nightmares from people not reporting r...
Source: Dreaming - May 25, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: McNamara, Patrick; Minsky, April; Pae, Victoria; Harris, Erica; Pace-Schott, Edward; Auerbach, Sanford Source Type: research
Dreaming as embodied simulation: A widower’s dreams of his deceased wife.
This article presents argument and evidence in support of the hypothesis that dreaming can be understood as a form of embodied simulation. Building on many past studies of dream content employing the Hall and Van de Castle (1966) coding system, the article claims that most dreams dramatize the complex set of conceptions that are part of the dreamer’s cognitive structure. Dreams embody conceptions primarily through literal enactments, making them somewhat akin to a theatrical play. The plausibility of this hypothesis is demonstrated through a quantitative analysis of emotions, social interactions, misfortunes, and good fo...
Source: Dreaming - May 18, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Domhoff, G. William Source Type: research
Subjective qualities of dreams with and without awareness.
This study investigated the subjective qualities of dreams reported as including some awareness of dreaming (DWA) with matched dreams reported as including no awareness of dreaming (Dw/oA). Twenty-eight pairs of DWA and Dw/oA were selected from a large set of dreams (N = 788) reported and rated by 144 college women during a 2-week dream journal study (Kahan & Claudatos, 2015). In that study, participants used the Subjective Experiences Rating Scale (SERS; Kahan, 1994) to rate the prevalence of particular features (sensory, affective, cognitive, structural) of dreams reported on morning awakening. Dependent groups t tests i...
Source: Dreaming - May 18, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Thomas, Shannon; Pollak, Madeline; Kahan, Tracey L. Source Type: research
One hundred typical themes in most recent dreams, diary dreams, and dreams spontaneously recollected from last night.
The aim of this study is twofold: (a) to replicate the previous survey finding that a majority of dreams spontaneously recollected from a randomly designated day following sleep contain at least 1 typical theme listed on the Dream Motif Scale, and (b) to examine typical themes experienced by Chinese people in their most recent dreams and diary dreams. In addition to the replication survey, in which 670 Chinese participants completed the Dream Motif Scale, 252 most recent dreams and 228 diary dreams were collected from 286 Chinese participants. The previous finding was precisely replicated to the effect that 87.5% of partic...
Source: Dreaming - April 27, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Yu, Calvin Kai-Ching Source Type: research
Death dreams from an implicit perspective: A cross-cultural comparison between Tibetan and Han Chinese dreamers.
The present study is a cross-cultural comparison of death dreams between Tibetan and Han Chinese dreamers from an implicit perspective. Implicit perspective means exploring the elements that cannot be seen directly from the text of the dream, but from a further interview and analysis. Altogether 536 Tibetan and Han Chinese participants were surveyed via questionnaire regarding death dreams. Data collected showed that 66 participants reported that they never had or could not remember a death dream. A total of 470 participants, 150 Tibetan and 320 Han Chinese, respectively, reported that they had such a dream and were furthe...
Source: Dreaming - April 27, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Yin, Fang; Li, Qiong; Shen, Heyong Source Type: research
Changes in dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and lucid dream frequency over a 3-year period.
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 of 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 (...
Source: Dreaming - April 27, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Schredl, Michael; Göritz, Anja S. Source Type: research
Dream Dome: Do dreams shield the psyche in times of continuous stress?
Results of analysis of 531 dreams, collected from 44 women living near the Gaza Strip in Israel under continuous rocket attacks, are presented. The most frequent themes found are ‘Togetherness,’ ‘Being active,’ ‘Stress-related situation,’ ‘Fear and anxiety,’ ‘Helplessness,’ and ‘Masochism.’ The participants were divided into 3 age groups—Young, Intermediate, and Old—and differences between the occurrence of dream themes in each group were examined. Results indicated high incidence of ‘Togetherness’ and ‘Stress-related situation’ themes in the young age group, whereas ‘Symbolic’ and ...
Source: Dreaming - April 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Kron, Tamar; Hareven, Or; Goldzweig, Gil Source Type: research
Continuity of reflective awareness across waking and dreaming states.
This study explored (a) the continuity between waking mindfulness and dream mindfulness and (b) the effects of dream mindfulness on subsequent waking thoughts and feelings. Results supported a modified version of the hypothesized cross-state continuity. Presleep mindfulness predicted a specific form of dream reflective awareness (the combination of intradream self-reflection and dual perspectives)—but only in mundane dreams. Also, dream mindfulness (the combination of intradream self-reflection, dual perspectives, and lucid mindfulness) predicted postdream increases in self-reflection—especially after transcendent drea...
Source: Dreaming - April 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lee, Ming-Ni; Kuiken, Don Source Type: research
“Are dreams experiences?”: Insights from dreaming considered as a conscious experience under constraint of delayed report.
Owing to the fact that frontal regions of the brain are severely deactivated during sleep, there is a seeming inconsistency between the prominent Global Neuronal Workspace Theory of consciousness and the received view that dreams are vivid experiences occurring while sleeping. Indeed, based on the canonical criterion of reportability, Global Neuronal Workspace theorists claim that frontal activation of the brain is a necessary condition for conscious experience. Does it mean the received view is scientifically questionable? We argue the opposite way considering dreaming as a conscious experience that strikingly satisfies t...
Source: Dreaming - April 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Crespin, Ludwig Source Type: research
Dream narration in healthy and at-risk pregnancy.
During pregnancy and the transition toward motherhood, a special time for the restructuring of the female identity and representational world, dreaming may play an important function in the psychic life. If we accept that psychological and psycho-social risk factors influence representation during pregnancy, this article explores, from a psychodynamic perspective, how the presence/absence of biological risk is represented into women’s dream narration. Forty dreams of pregnant women (20 healthy pregnancies/20 at risk) were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. We performed a thematic analysis of multiple correspondence...
Source: Dreaming - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Margherita, Giorgia; Gargiulo, Anna; Martino, Maria Luisa Source Type: research
Assessing autocorrelation in studies using the Hall and Van de Castle coding system to study individual dream series.
This article reports statistical findings concerning the presence of autocorrelation in studies using the Hall and Van de Castle (1966) coding system to quantify various aspects of dream content in samples containing multiple dream reports from 1 person. It employs the Wald and Wolfowitz (1940) runs test, which tests for randomness in time series that are based on the categorical level of measurement, to search for autocorrelation in 10 subsets of dream reports from 4 different dream series—a total of 125 runs tests in all. The results provide no indication of autocorrelation. These findings are discussed in the context ...
Source: Dreaming - March 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Domhoff, G. William; Schneider, Adam Source Type: research
Death dreams from a manifest perspective: A cross-cultural comparison between Tibetan and Han Chinese dreamers.
The present study is a cross-cultural comparison of death dreams between Tibetan and Han Chinese dreamers from a manifest perspective. Manifest perspective means that the elements can be seen directly in the text of the dream studied. Altogether, 536 Tibetan and Han Chinese participants were interviewed via questionnaire regarding death dreams. Data collected showed that 66 participants (12.3%) reported that they never had or could not remember a death dream. Four hundred seventy participants, 150 Tibetan and 320 Han Chinese respectively, reported that they had such a dream and were interviewed further. Results showed that...
Source: Dreaming - March 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Li, Qiong; Yin, Fang; Shen, Heyong Source Type: research
A high-density electroencephalographic study of synchronous networks during rapid-eye-movement sleep.
This study was geared toward constructing synchronous functional brain networks that characterize various REM periods throughout the night. Data were obtained from 8 subjects using an electroencephalographic system with 256 channels and were processed by both artifact filtering and trend removal before cross-correlation analyses. The resultant networks were primarily made up of positive connections clustered on the zygomatic-mandible, anterio-fronto-central, and occipito-temporo-cerebellar regions and distant negative connections between the anterio-fronto-central and occipito-temporo-cerebellar regions. They were distingu...
Source: Dreaming - March 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Yu, Calvin Kai-Ching Source Type: research
Correcting for multiple comparisons in studies of dream content: A statistical addition to the Hall/Van de Castle coding system.
This article addresses the issue of potential false positives when multiple tests are carried out in comparing 2 samples with the content indicators used in the Hall and Van de Castle (1966) coding system for dream content. Using an algorithm based on the Benjamini–Hochberg (Benjamini & Hochberg, 1995) correction for the False Discovery Rate, it first compares findings for men and women in a large normative sample; all 12 of the statistically significant differences at the .05 level remain, along with 10 of 11 below .01. The article then compares results from an individual’s dream series with the norms for women; 10 of...
Source: Dreaming - February 9, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Domhoff, G. William; Schneider, Adam Source Type: research
