Self-transcendence has been hypothesized to be a critical component of wisdom (Curnow, 1999) and adaptation in later life (Tornstam, 1994). It reflects a decreasing reliance on externals for definition of the self, increasing interiority and spirituality, and a greater sense of connectedness with past and future generations. The Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory was administered to 351...
The question of age changes in frequency of dream recall was addressed in a questionnaire survey of 295 collage-educated men and women aged seventeen to seventy. Dream recall was found to be maximal for men and women alike during the college years, with a subsequent decline to a much lower level in the forties and beyond. The drop in recall frequency is paralleled by a declining interest in,...
Age-related change in manifest dream content was assessed in dreams recalled from REM sleep by fifty-eight men aged twenty-seven to sixty-four and in dreams recalled from sleep at home. There was evidence of a small-age-related decline in dream distortion (bizarreness) and family-related content, with family-related content most prominent from ages thirty-five to fifty-five. Overall the effect...
Seventeen (seven mild and ten severe) chronic brain syndrome patients were tested in the sleep laboratory for dream recall and content. The mildly organic patients had 57 per cent recall while the severely organic patients had 35 per cent recall. We also studied four aged severely organic patients. These patients showed a recall rate of 8 per cent. The difference between the recall rates in...