University Library Heidelberg
January 26, 2026
Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
The continuity hypothesis of dreaming states that dreams reflect waking life, however, research has also shown that dreams can affect waking life, e.g., creativity, daytime mood. So far, factors that are associated with the effect of dreams on waking life have been rarely studied. Overall, 2492 persons (1437 woman, 1055 men) with a mean age of 47.75 ± 14.41 years participated in the study. The...
Imagination, Cognition and Personality
September 1, 2025
Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
The basic definition of lucid dreaming is that the dreamer knows that s/he is dreaming while still dreaming. However, the skills within the lucid dream, e.g., regarding dream control, vary considerably from dreamer to dreamer. The present study tested the psychometric properties of the Lucid Dreaming Skills Questionnaire (LUSK) in a sample of 1267 persons. The findings indicate that the LUSK...
Clocks & Sleep
September 1, 2020
Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
Chronotype refers to individual differences in sleep timing ("owls" and "larks") and "eveningness" has been associated with nightmares. However, it has not been tested as to whether neuroticism mediates this relationship. Urbanicity refers to being raised in an urban region and/or currently living in an urban region and is associated with heightened risk for developing mental disorders, and...
Journal of Sleep Research
June 11, 2020
Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
10 citations
Models of nightmare aetiology postulate an interaction between trait and state factors. However, most of the studies that support these models have been cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are scarce. The present data were obtained from N = 888 participants completing two online dream studies carried out independently with the same online panel 2 years apart. Nightmare frequency declined...
Imagination, Cognition and Personality
March 25, 2019
Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
A fascinating area of dream research is the analysis of long dream series. However, research regarding differences between long-term journalists and normal persons is lacking. The present online survey (N = 2,492) focused on the relationship between the Big Five personality dimensions and frequency of recording dreams. As expected, dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and attitude...
November 1, 2018
Annabelle Neuhäusler, Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
A variety of induction techniques have been proposed to increase lucid dream frequency. An online survey was performed asking about knowledge of lucid dreaming and lucid dream induction techniques. The initial sample size was N=1380 with a subsample of N=716 who were asked questions concerning lucid dream induction techniques. The findings indicate that one quarter of all participants had heard...
OPUS
June 7, 2018
Celina Schadow, Michael Schredl, Janina Rieger et al.
20 citations
Lucid dreams are dreams that involve awareness of dreaming while dreaming. As lucid dreaming is accompanied by heightened cortical activation, e.g., in the prefrontal cortex, it was speculated whether lucid dreaming interferes with the restorative function of sleep. Two cross-sectional studies have found inhomogeneous results regarding the relationship between lucid dream frequency and...
Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
March 15, 2018
Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
Even though the common diagnostic criteria (ICSD-3, DSM-5) acknowledge that nightmares do not only contain anxiety/fear (definition of the ICD-10) but also other emotions such as grief, disgust, and anger, the definition of a nightmare still focuses on threats to survival, security, or physical integrity. However, empirical studies on nightmare content in larger samples are scarce. The current...
PPmP - Psychotherapie · Psychosomatik · Medizinische Psychologie
October 18, 2013
Michael Schredl, Anja S. Göritz
18 citations
The present study elicited a variety of coping strategies for nightmares in the general population and asked whether these coping strategies were helpful. A large-scale online survey (N=2 872, mean age: 43 years) was carried out. About 11.5% of the participants reported nightmares once a week or more often. The results indicate that sharing of nightmares was the most prevalent coping strategy,...
Imagination Cognition and Personality
October 1, 2010
Michael Schredl, Franc Paul, Olaf Lahl et al.
15 citations
Despite the large number of studies addressing gender differences in dream recall and dream content, research regarding whether these differences might be affected by sex role orientation is rather scarce. The present online-survey included a large sample of most recent dreams. The results clearly indicate that sex role orientation (femininity/expressivity and masculinity/instrumentality)...