Alexithymia and aspects of dreaming: Differential associations of alexithymia facets with dream variables.
International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie February 1, 2024 Michael Lyvers, Morgana Robinson, Bruce Watt et al.
Alexithymia—difficulty identifying and describing emotions—shows mixed links to dreaming. In an online sample of 577 young adults, the difficulty identifying feelings (DIF) facet predicted greater emotional intensity of dreams, while externally oriented thinking (EOT) predicted less emotional dreams. Stress, not emotion suppression, explained the DIF-dream emotionality link. Higher DIF scores also related to more nightmare distress, dream meaningfulness, and self-learning through dreams. Findings clarify how different alexithymia facets affect dream experiences.