Imagination Cognition and Personality
September 1, 2008
Michael Schredl, Katharina Keller
11 citations
The present study investigated the effects of socio-demographic variables on dream content in a representative sample. The analyses of 380 most recent dreams showed that almost none of the socio-demographic variables like age, gender, marital status, education, income, nor town (or city) of residence size was significantly related to general dream characteristics like dream length, bizarreness,...
Sexologies
June 25, 2008
Michael Schredl, Simon Desch, F. Röming et al.
36 citations
Sexual dreams are quite common and many studies indicate that men report erotic dreams more often than women. A systematic exploration as to whether the frequency of erotic dreams is related to sexual behavior or fantasy in waking life – as would be predicted by the continuity hypothesis of dreaming – has not yet been carried out. Overall, 70 students completed a questionnaire about waking life...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
June 1, 2008
Michael Schredl
The present study investigated the effects of sociodemographic variables on dream recall frequencies in a representative sample of 931 persons over 14 years of age. Analyses indicated that age, sex, and the size of the place of residence had small but significant effects: women and inhabitants of large cities tend to report dreams more often than men and residents of small towns. There was also...
Journal of Sleep Research
June 1, 2008
Michael Schredl, Iris Reinhard
SummaryMany studies have reported gender differences in dream recall. Data from 175 independent studies have been included in the analyses. Overall, estimated effect sizes in five age groups of healthy persons differed significantly from zero. Variables like measurement method and publication year did not affect the gender difference but age groups showed different effect sizes. The smallest...
The Journal of Psychology
May 1, 2008
Michael Schredl, Daniel Erlacher
46 citations
The continuity hypothesis in its general form states that dreams reflect waking life: concerns, thoughts, and experiences (G. W. Domhoff, 1996; M. Schredl, 1999; I. Strauch & B. Meier, 1996). For example, athletes and sport students dream about sports more often than do psychology students, presumably reflecting their engagement in sport activities and sport theory (D. Erlacher & M. Schredl,...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
April 1, 2008
Michael Schredl, Iris Reinhard
Longer sleep duration should be related to dream recall (longer REM sleep), but previous findings regarding the relationship between habitual sleep duration and dream recall frequency have been conflicting, whereas experimental manipulation of sleep duration yielded a significant effect. The analysis of diaries kept by the 444 participants over 14 days indicated that intra-individual...
heiDOK (Heidelberg University)
2008
Michael Schredl
49 citations
Incorporation of laboratory elements into dreams elicited in the sleep laboratory is a methodological problem, i.e., the measurement technique affects unwittingly the object of measurement (dream content). On a theoretical level, the occurrence of laboratory references, however, fits in the framework of the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. Reviewing the literature revealed that there is a...
heiDOK (Heidelberg University)
2008
Michael Schredl
5 citations
In clinical praxis, the question as to whether it is possible – based on a dream report – to make any inferences about the characteristics of the dreamer often arises. For the present study, gender was selected for the matching task. The judges were able to match the dreamer’s gender based on a single dream report better than chance. The rate of correct decisions (57.5% to 64%), however, was...
Imagination Cognition and Personality
October 1, 2007
Michael Schredl
21 citations
Despite the fact that flying unaided is not possible in waking life, flying dreams have been reported fairly often. Over the centuries, a large number of scientists have speculated about the etiology of such dreams. Their occurrence in a student sample ( N = 444) was related to low neuroticism, openness to experience, boundary thinness, dream recall frequency and playing an instrument. The...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
October 1, 2007
Michael Schredl
Whereas the effect of sex and age on dream recall have been studied widely, socioeconomic status has rarely been investigated. However, two studies reported that higher socioeconomic status was related to greater frequency of dream recall. In the present sample of 612 Chinese students from three different schools, one elite (high socioeconomic status), one rural (low socioeconomic status) and...
The Journal of Psychology
2007
Michael Schredl, Daniel Erlacher
62 citations
The authors studied the self-rated effect of dreams on creativity in participants who were not selected for creative abilities. Students (N = 444) and online respondents (N = 636) answered a questionnaire about dreams and creative dreams. In addition, the students completed several personality measures and creativity scales. Results indicated that dreams that stimulated waking-life creativity...
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
2007
Lutz Wittmann, Michael Schredl, Milton Kramer
This review summarizes the available knowledge on the phenomenology of posttraumatic dreams. Posttraumatic nightmares are reported by up to 70% of individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). An extensive review of polysomnographic studies suggests that neither this high incidence nor the occurrence of posttraumatic nightmares throughout the sleep cycle can be explained by...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
December 1, 2006
Michael Schredl, Heiko Sartorius
The present study investigated frequency of dream recall in children and their mothers. Overall, 88 mothers ( M age: 38.7 yr., SD = 5.0) and their children (45 girls, 43 boys; M age: 9.9 yr., SD = 1.3) participated. A small but significant positive Pearson correlation of .19 between the frequency of dreams reported by mothers and by their children is consistent with Cohen's 1973 hypothesis of a...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
June 1, 2006
Michael Schredl, Claudia Barthold, Josepha Zimmer
The present study investigated dream recall as well as nightmare frequency in families. Whereas a positive correlation for nightmare frequencies between children and mothers was found (but not for children and their fathers), the relationship for dream recall frequency was small and nonsignificant. Assuming that mothers are still the primary caregivers in the modern family, and, thus, might...
Political Psychology
March 23, 2006
Michael Schredl, Edgar Piel
28 citations
Based on the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, the effects of World War II on the dreams of German persons have been studied. The present study included four representative samples from 1956 to 2000 (repeated cross‐sectional surveys). Although a decline of war‐related dream themes over time was found, the heightened rate of these themes in the oldest age group (60 years and older) in the year...
Imagination Cognition and Personality
March 1, 2006
G. William Domhoff, Katrin Meyer-Gomes, Michael Schredl
37 citations
Past research shows there are more similarities than differences in the dream content of college students in several industrialized democracies. This study uses new results from dreams collected in Germany to support this past finding and suggest that dreams are more similar than different because they dramatize people's conceptions and concerns in relation to personal issues, which probably do...
Sleep Medicine Reviews
February 1, 2006
Victor I. Spoormaker, Michael Schredl, Jan Van den Bout
The DSM-IV-TR definition of nightmares-extremely frightening dreams from which the person wakes up directly-is unnecessarily narrow. Other emotions (anger, grief) have also been reported in nightmares, and direct awakening from a bad dream seems to be unrelated to increased distress. In addition, assessment of nightmares is problematic. Polysomnographic recordings have an ameliorating effect on...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
February 1, 2006
Michael Schredl, Stephany Fulda, Iris Reinhard
There is ongoing debate on whether the full moon is associated with sleep and dreaming. The analysis of diaries kept by the participants ( N = 196) over 28 to 111 nights showed no association of a full moon and dream recall. Psychological factors might explain why some persons associate a full moon with increased dream recall.
Schweizer Archiv für Neurologie und Psychiatrie
December 7, 2005
Michael Schredl
26 citations
Dreaming has fascinated mankind since the dawn of history. This article focuses on the psychologically oriented research which has three major areas of interest: (1) a description of dreams (What do dreams look like?), (2) factors influencing dream content and (3) the effects of dreams on subsequent waking life. The following definition attempts to cover the consensus of the researchers in the...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
October 1, 2005
Michael Schredl, Stephany Fulda
Previous research regarding the relationship between habitual sleep duration and frequency of dream recall yielded conflicting results, whereas experimental manipulation of sleep duration showed a significant effect on dream recall. In this study analyzing both effects simultaneously, the findings from diaries kept by the 196 participants over 28 to 111 days indicated that intra-individual...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
December 1, 2004
Daniel Erlacher, Michael Schredl
The present study investigated the relationship between the time required for specific tasks (counting and performing squats) in lucid dreams and in the waking state. Five proficient lucid dreamers (26-34 yr. old, M=29.8, SD=3.0; one woman and four men) participated. Analysis showed that the time needed for counting in a lucid dream is comparable to the time needed for counting in wakefulness,...
Perceptual and Motor Skills
June 1, 2004
Michael Schredl
Dream recall frequency varies widely between people as well as within individuals. To explore the relationship between dream recall frequency and trait variables such as personality dimensions, a measure of stable interindividual differences is necessary. In the present study ( N = 198 patients with sleep disorders; 115 women, 83 men; M age = 45.8 ± 15.3 yr.) a high retest reliability of the...
The Journal of Psychology
2004
Michael Schredl, Petra Ciric, Simon GÖtz et al.
106 citations
Although the variability of dream content is large, typical dream themes that occur quite often and are reported by many people can be identified (e.g., being chased, falling, flying, failing an examination, being unable to find a toilet or restroom). The present study is an investigation of the stability of the rank order of the dream themes and of gender differences in the content of dreams....
Dreaming
September 1, 2003
Michael Schredl, Petra Ciric, Simon GÖtz et al.
59 citations
The question whether personality dimensions explain the interindividual differences in dream recall frequency has often been investigated by dream researchers. The present findings confirm previous research which has shown that traits such as openness-to-experience and thin boundaries correlate substantially with dream recall frequency. However, correlation coefficients are small and are much...
Journal of Sleep Research
May 12, 2003
Michael Schredl, Lutz Wittmann, Petra Ciric et al.
147 citations
Previous research has indicated that personality factors such as openness to experience, creativity, visual memory, attitude toward dreams, and sleep behavior is related to home dream recall frequency (DRF). However, a study investigating all areas simultaneously within one sample in order to determine the percentage of variance explained by all variables and to take intercorrelations between...