About 11% of remembered dreams affect daytime mood, supporting an expanded continuity hypothesis where dreams not only reflect but also influence waking life. A survey of 2,492 adults (mean age 47.75 years) found that nightmare frequency, dream recall frequency, attitude toward dreams, neuroticism, openness to experience, gender, and age all influence how dreams affect daytime mood. The findings suggest that for some individuals—particularly women and those with high neuroticism—dreams may have a clinically significant impact on waking life, pointing to a need for further research into a descriptive model linking thematic content and emotions between dream and waking consciousness.
The Lucid Dreaming Skills Questionnaire (LUSK) reliably measures differences in people's ability to control their dreams while lucid. A study of 1,267 people found the questionnaire valid. In a subset of 374 people tested again after seven years, LUSK scores were less stable than how often people reported having lucid dreams. Those who actively practiced lucid dreaming over the seven years showed a greater increase in lucid dream frequency than those who did not, suggesting that lucid dream induction can succeed outside formal research settings.
Eveningness (being an 'owl') is linked to more frequent nightmares, but this relationship is mediated by neuroticism. Morningness (being a 'lark') is associated with higher dream recall than late bedtime preferences. Urbanicity—being raised in or currently living in an urban area—was not related to nightmare frequency but was linked to lower nightmare distress, suggesting that beliefs about nightmares may influence distress levels. These findings come from an online survey of 2,492 adults (mean age 47.75 years) and highlight unresolved questions about how nightmares, chronotype, and urbanicity interact.
Nightmares involve a wider range of emotions and topics than the standard definitions suggest. Analyzing 1,216 recent nightmares (including childhood nightmares) from a population-based sample, the study found common themes such as being chased, physical aggression, and death or injury of close persons. Less frequent themes, like being the aggressor and suicide, may relate to waking-life psychopathology. The variety of nightmare topics indicates that current diagnostic criteria, which focus mainly on threats to survival or physical integrity, are too narrow. Future research should examine nightmare content specifically in individuals diagnosed with nightmare disorder.