Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
March 31, 2025
Annemiek C. Balt, Marlon Nieuwenhuis, E. D. de Bruin
A systematic review of three studies (six sub-studies) finds an inconclusive association between mindfulness and lucid dreaming frequency. Factors that may account for inconsistent results across studies include meditation experience, lucid dreaming experience, dream recall, gender, and age. The review underlines the importance of future research that accounts for these factors to better understand the relationship.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
April 13, 2023
Dengle Yang, Wenyuan Wu, Yiyun Xia et al.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, dream themes among Chinese older adults were linked to death anxiety. In interviews and questionnaires with 264 participants from four Chinese cities, 48.48% recalled dreams. The most common emotion in dreams was fear. Two dream themes—flooding and seeing oneself die—were more frequent among those with high death anxiety. The findings support the dream continuity hypothesis and threat simulation theory, suggesting dreams may help cope with death anxiety.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
September 1, 2021
Christina Pierpaoli-Parker, Courtney J Bolstad, E. Szkody et al.
Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) reduced nightmares and, according to the patient and her husband, decreased dream enactment in a person with both nightmare disorder and REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Five sessions of IRT over five months led to fewer nightmares and less dream enactment. The authors suggest that lowering the emotional intensity of dream content may make dream enactment less likely, and that IRT could serve as a helpful addition to medication for RBD.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
June 1, 2021
K. Miller, R. Ross, Gerlinde C. Harb
Among military veterans with PTSD and recurrent nightmares, over half reported experiencing lucid dreaming, and nearly all of those reported lucidity specifically during nightmares. The lucid nightmare profile involved high awareness of dreaming but low ability to control dream content. Veterans described feeling stuck and anxious, and they tried unsuccessfully to wake themselves from these lucid nightmares. The pattern matches the general lucid dreaming profile previously observed in this group.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
December 1, 2019
G. Domhoff
On its 20th anniversary, the neurocognitive theory of dreaming is evaluated against four other theories with a neural dimension: Freudian, activation-synthesis, memory-consolidation, and threat-simulation theories. The neurocognitive theory uniquely integrates findings from three strands of research—neural substrate, dream development in children, and adult dream content—whose key building blocks have been replicated by independent investigators. Unlike the other theories, it includes a developmental dimension and accords with established findings on dream content. Neuroimaging has strengthened the theory by showing that the neural substrate enabling dreaming is a subsystem of the default network, which supports imagination when awake and includes hubs of the waking self-system, explaining the focus on personal concerns. Dreaming is characterized as an intensified, enhanced form of spontaneous thought and an "embodied simulation."
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
March 1, 2019
Joshua Black, K. Belicki, Jessica Emberley-Ralph
Dreaming of a deceased loved one is partly explained by general dream recall, grief intensity, openness to experience, and attachment to the deceased. In two online surveys of bereaved adults—one of 268 people who lost a romantic partner within 12–24 months, the other of 162 people whose pet died within 6 months—path analyses showed that dream recall frequency directly predicted dreams of the deceased. In the pet-loss study, grief intensity and openness also had direct effects. Across both studies, grief, openness, and attachment indirectly influenced dreams of the deceased through dream recall or through grief and dream recall. Those who recalled such dreams reported more positive themes, unlike ordinary or posttraumatic dreams.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
March 1, 2019
W. Kelly, Qiujun Yu
The Nightmare Proneness Scale (NPS) shows promise as a measure of a personality trait that makes people more likely to have frequent nightmares. In a sample of 140 university students, the scale's scores correlated with nightmare frequency, distress from nightmares, effects of nightmares, general psychological distress, neuroticism, and trauma symptoms, supporting its convergent validity. Discriminant validity was shown by weak or absent correlations with feminine gender role, habitual sleep length, and social desirability. The NPS also predicted additional variance in nightmares beyond that explained by general distress, neuroticism, and trauma symptoms combined, as well as beyond nightmare distress and effects.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
March 1, 2019
Carlo Lai, Giada Lucarelli, G. Pellicano et al.
Dream recall increases activation in fronto-limbic brain areas during emotional processing. Thirty-seven women were randomly assigned to either recall a dream or report work experiences between two sessions of viewing emotional images. Electroencephalography showed that the dream-recall group had increased fronto-limbic activation and decreased activation in the anterior middle frontal gyrus and temporo-parietal junction from the first to the second session, while the control group showed decreased limbic activation. The authors suggest that dream recall favors an emotional response.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
December 1, 2018
Christian Rœsler
An analysis of 202 dreams from 15 patients in analytical psychotherapy using Structural Dream Analysis identified five major dream patterns. Most dream series were dominated by one or two repetitive patterns linked to the dreamers' psychological problems. Typical changes in these patterns corresponded with therapeutic progress. The findings support Jung's theory that dreams provide a holistic image of the psyche, including unconscious aspects. Implications for psychoanalytic theories of dreaming and the continuity hypothesis are discussed.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
December 1, 2018
Kelly Bulkeley
An exercise in blind analysis of a 30-year dream series from a woman named Beverly used a digital word search template on four subsets of her 940 dreams (from 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016). Predictions about her waking life based on word usage frequencies in her dreams were made; of 26 predictions, Beverly confirmed 23 as accurate. Correct inferences included aspects of her emotional temperament, preoccupations, relationships, financial concerns, physical health, and cultural interests, especially religion and spirituality. These continuities between dreaming and waking life support claims that dream content patterns have meaningful connections with people's waking concerns, interests, and activities.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
September 1, 2018
D. Skrzypińska, M. Hołda, Barbara Szmigielska et al.
People who often confuse dreams with reality tend to have higher neuroticism, thinner psychological boundaries, more frequent dream recall, and more involved attitudes toward dreams. They also experience more sleep-related phenomena. Trends suggest that borderline personality features, fantasy proneness, and dissociative symptoms may increase the likelihood of dream–reality confusion. The study compared 82 participants from the general population who often experience DRC with those who rarely or never do.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
September 1, 2018
Daohua Zhang, Qiong Li, Heyong Shen et al.
Monks' dreams contain more themes of prediction and revelation, more divine beings and teachers, and more peaceful and reverent emotions compared with nonreligious respondents, whose dreams feature more death, relatives, animals, dead people, and anxiety. The study compared 65 monks and 62 nonreligious respondents through interviews and content analysis. Monks also reported reacting to dreams with chanting and praying more often. The authors interpret these differences in light of Buddhist characteristics and living environment.
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.)
June 1, 2018
K. Miller, Joanne L. Davis, J. Rhudy
A modified version of exposure, relaxation, and rescripting therapy (ERRT-B) reduced nightmare frequency and severity in seven trauma-exposed individuals with bipolar disorder who had experienced frequent posttrauma nightmares for an average of 16 years. After five weeks of treatment, large improvements were seen in nightmare frequency, nightmare severity, and PTSD symptoms, with six participants reporting no nightmares at the three-month follow-up. Improvements in depression, global sleep quality, and insomnia severity were mixed. The findings suggest ERRT-B may be clinically useful for treating trauma-related nightmares in people with bipolar disorder and warrant further research.