The American Journal of Psychology
April 1, 2009
Katja Valli, Antti Revonsuo
132 citations
The threat simulation theory (TST) proposes that dreaming about threatening events serves a biological function. This review examines studies that tested TST using the Dream Threat Scale (DTS), a system for identifying and classifying threats in dreams. The reviewed research includes dreams from Finnish and Swedish university students, traumatized and nontraumatized Kurdish, Palestinian, and Finnish children, and recurrent dreams and nightmares from Canadian participants. The authors conclude that new evidence and direct tests yield strong support for TST, and its strengths outweigh its weaknesses.
The American Journal of Psychology
April 21, 2014
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Miriam Johnson et al.
104 citations
Lucid dreamers are aware they are dreaming. An online survey of 684 respondents, 571 of whom were lucid dreamers (83.5%), found that lucid dreams most often begin spontaneously in adolescence and last about 14 minutes on average. Dreamers are typically active, planning actions like flying, talking with dream characters, or having sex, but often fail to remember or execute these intentions due to awakening or obstacles in the dream. The frequency of lucid dreaming was the strongest predictor of dream phenomenology, with some differences linked to age, gender, and whether the dreamer was natural or self-trained.
The American Journal of Psychology
August 21, 2017
Pilleriin Sikka, Diana Feilhauer, Katja Valli et al.
63 citations
How emotions in dreams are measured can lead to opposite conclusions about whether dreams are mostly positive or negative. Over three weeks, 44 participants reported their dreams each morning and rated their own emotional experiences using a standard emotion scale. Two external judges rated the same 552 dream reports using the same scale. Self-ratings showed dreams as more emotional and more positive, with most dreams rated positively. External ratings showed most dreams as negatively valenced. The two methods partially agreed on negative emotions but diverged sharply on positive emotions. This suggests negative emotional experiences may be measured more reliably than positive ones, and the two methods may capture different phenomena and should be used together.
The American Journal of Psychology
September 18, 2019
Michael Schredl, Verena S. Struck, Christine Schwert et al.
5 citations
Gender differences in the dreams of children and adolescents mirror those seen in adults. In a large UK sample of 1,995 most recent dreams, boys reported more physical aggression and fewer female characters, while girls' dreams more often featured indoor settings. These patterns support the continuity hypothesis, which holds that dreams reflect waking life. Dream content analysis offers a window into the inner world of young people, revealing their experiences, thoughts, and concerns. Future studies should measure waking aggression, social contacts, and leisure activities to directly link waking and dreaming.
The American Journal of Psychology
January 1, 2014
Michael Schredl
Women tend to report nightmares more frequently than men, a difference that emerges around age 10. A study in an unselected student sample found that two factors mediate this gender difference: neuroticism and overall dream recall frequency. The effect of neuroticism and the age of emergence suggest that gender-specific socialization processes may play an important role. Previous findings linking nightmare frequency to sex role orientation support this idea, but longitudinal studies are needed to validate these hypotheses.
The American Journal of Psychology
January 1, 2011
Michael Schredl
About 75% of 444 participants, mostly psychology students, had read at least one magazine article on dreams, and over 40% had read at least one book about dreams. A positive attitude toward dreaming was the main factor linked to how often people read dream literature; personality traits played only a minor role. The self-rated benefit of reading such material ranged widely, from not helpful to very helpful, and was associated with how often people recalled their dreams and their positive attitude toward dreaming. More detailed research into what specific information people read could help identify effective dream-work techniques.
The American Journal of Psychology
January 1, 2010
Michael Schredl, Joelle Alexandra Schawinski
About 14.5% of dreams are shared, and how often people share dreams is independently linked to how often they recall dreams, how often they have nightmares, their attitude toward dreams, gender, extroversion, and thin psychological boundaries. Dream sharing typically occurs with romantic partners, friends, and relatives and is associated with greater relational intimacy and stress relief, especially for nightmares. The authors call for longitudinal studies to separate temporary from stable factors and to confirm the reported benefits of dream sharing on intimacy in relationships and friendships.
The American Journal of Psychology
January 1, 2010
Katherine MacDuffie, George A. Mashour
Dreaming is a unique state of consciousness that integrates three temporal dimensions: experiencing the present, processing the past, and preparing for the future. This temporal complexity is enabled by the neurobiological environment of sleep, where stimuli are internally generated and many constraints of waking thought are absent. Because dream consciousness is not determined by sensory input, it allows flexible integration of past experiences and formation of novel connections. Different dream theories may not be mutually exclusive but instead relate to different temporal domains of the dream state.