Adverse Childhood Experiences Are Associated With Adult Dream Content: A Cross-Sectional Survey.
Frontiers in Psychology January 1, 2022 Yundong Ma, Xia Feng, Di Wang et al.
Childhood adversity is associated with the content of adult dreams, specifically the characters, friendly interactions, and objects that appear in them. In a cross-sectional study of 120 healthy adults aged 18–35 who recorded dreams for 10 consecutive days, those who reported more childhood trauma also showed differences in dream elements, as coded by the Hall and Van de Castle system. Regression models predicted dream characters and objects from childhood adversity scores. No gender differences were found in dream recall, sleep quality, emotional state, or childhood adversity levels.