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Dreaming

ISSN 1053-0797

26 papers in the library · 1,003 citations · publishing 1991-2026

Papers

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Big-Five personality traits and dream experiences: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Dreaming March 26, 2026 Jai Marin, Noah Thomas, Lan Nguyen et al.

Dreams represent a universal human experience linked to emotional regulation, memory processing, and psychological well-being, yet the extent to which stable personality traits shape dream experiences remains unclear. Previous reviews have either focused narrowly on nightmares or examined general sleep-related patterns, leaving questions about the broader role of personality in dreaming...

Nightmares and the Big Five personality traits: A systematic review and three-level meta-analysis.

Dreaming February 18, 2025 Aurore Roland, Zosia Goossens 3 citations

Objective/Background Our objective was to conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis to enhance our comprehension of the Big Five personality traits that are associated with nightmare frequency and distress and might thus serve as risk factors for frequent and distressing nightmares.Methods The inclusion criteria for studies were the use of a validated questionnaire to measure the Big Five...

Dreaming and the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey in a U.S. sample.

Dreaming September 1, 2020 Michael Schredl, Kelly Bulkeley 66 citations

This study analyzes the responses of 3,031 U S adults who, in early May of 2020, completed an online survey regarding their dreams and the COVID-19 outbreak The results indicate that those people most strongly affected by the pandemic also reported the strongest effects on their dream life (heightened dream recall, more negatively toned dreams, and pandemic-related dreams) Pronounced negative...

Dreaming in the time of COVID-19: A quali-quantitative Italian study.

Dreaming September 1, 2020 Ilaria Iorio, Massimiliano Sommantico, Santa Parrello 46 citations

Based on the continuity hypothesis of dreaming with waking life, we have studied the effects of isolation on the dreams of Italian persons, during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic The present study included a sample of 796 subjects (73 2% women;ages 18-79 years, M = 30 3, SD = 12 8) Participants were asked to complete a dream questionnaire, as well as to report their most recent dream, by...

Reality testing and the mnemonic induction of lucid dreams: Findings from the national Australian lucid dream induction study.

Dreaming September 1, 2017 Denholm Jay Adventure-Heart, Paul Delfabbro, Michael Proeve et al. 28 citations

Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill and has a wide range of potential applications. However, research in this area has been limited by a lack of effective and reliable lucid dream induction techniques. The present study provides a thorough investigation into 3 of the most promising cognitive lucid d

Sharing dreams: Frequency, motivations, and relationship intimacy.

Dreaming September 9, 2013 Michael Rohde Olsen, Michael Schredl, Ingegerd Carlsson 19 citations

The study investigated aspects of dream sharing and dream recall in an adult sample (N = 667). It explored with whom dreams are shared and why, as well as the relation between relationship intimacy and dream sharing frequency with the partner. A significant, positive correlation was found between dream sharing frequency in couples and perceived relationship intimacy. Further, the findings...

Video game play as nightmare protection: A preliminary inquiry with military gamers.

Dreaming August 22, 2011 Jayne Gackenbach, Evelyn Ellerman, Christie Hall 22 citations

Soldiers who play video games to varying degrees were solicited to fill out a survey on dreams and gaming. A prescreening filtered out those who were not soldiers, who did not game and who were suffering from various psychological problems in the last six months. The remaining soldiers filled out these inventories; general and military demographics, history of video game play, Emotional...

Dreaming correlates of alexithymia among sleep-disordered patients.

Dreaming March 1, 2011 Tore Nielsen, Katia Levrier, Jacques Montplaisir 31 citations

Increasing evidence supports the clinical view that alexithymia is associated with disturbed dreaming. However, a consistent, replicable pattern of relationships between alexithymia and different dreaming components has not yet been identified. Groups of sleep-disordered outpatients (N 580; 46.0 13.2 years) and nonclinical controls (N 145; 22.9 4.2 years) were administered the Toronto...

Preliminary description of a self-similarity phenomenon in the connection patterns of dreams.

Dreaming June 1, 2010 Umberto Barcaro, Pietro Rizzi 4 citations

The objective of the research was to recognize and describe a phenomenon of self-similarity in dreams, specifically in the connection patterns of dreams: These patterns were obtained by means of a linguistic analysis of data including dream reports and associations provided by the dreamer. Dreams of four patients in therapy, three for each patient, were considered. It was found that a...

Electronic media and lucid-control dreams: Morning after reports.

Dreaming March 1, 2009 Jayne Gackenbach 29 citations

Lucid dreams, as well as control dreams, have recently been reported as associated with video game play (Gackenbach, 2006). In this study, dreams were collected from the morning after a night of rested sleep as well as electronic media use from the day before the dream. In a factor analysis, lucid and control dreams were associated with all electronic media use but most strongly with video game...

Psychophysiological correlates of lucid dreaming.

Dreaming June 1, 2006 Brigitte Holzinger, Stephen LaBerge, Lynne Levitan 69 citations

The main goal of the present study was to explore electrophysiologicaldifferences between lucid and nonlucid dreams in REM sleep. Seven men andfour women experienced in lucid dreaming underwent polysomnographicrecordings in the sleep laboratory on two consecutive nights. EEG signalswere subjected to spectral analysis to obtain Þve different frequency bandsbetween 1 and 20 Hz. Lucidity was...

The effects of a two-week reflection-intention training program on lucid dream recall.

Dreaming March 1, 2006 Timo Paulsson, Adrian G. Parker 20 citations

Previous research in the field of lucid dreams has contained descriptions of several techniques for inducing lucid dreams, but there have been only a limited number of empirical studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of these techniques. The present study investigated the effects of a two week training program using the reflectionintention technique which is specifically designed to...

Increased Mastery Elements Associated With Imagery Rehearsal Treatment for Nightmares in Sexual Assault Survivors With PTSD.

Dreaming December 1, 2004 Anne Germain, Barry Krakow, Brigitte Faucher et al. 78 citations

Exposure, abreaction, and mastery have been proposed as the therapeutic processes of nightmare (NM) reduction. Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) effectively reduces NMs but involves minimal exposure and abreaction. The authors investigated the use of mastery in the scripting of new dreams (NDs) elaborated during IRT. NM an dN D reports were collected from 44 female sexual assault survivors with...

Incidence of Threat in Dreams: A Response to Revonsuo's Threat Simulation Theory.

Dreaming December 1, 2004 Susan Malcolm‐Smith, Mark Solms 31 citations

A. Revonsuo (2000b) proposed an evolutionary theory of dreaming, stating it is a threat simulation mechanism that allowed early humans to rehearse threat perception and avoidance without biological cost. The present study aimed to establish the proportion of dreams containing physical threats to the dreamer, whether these represent realistic life-threatening events, and whether the dreamer...

Dream recall frequency, attitude towards dreams and openness to experience.

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...

Lucid dreaming treatment for nightmares: A series of cases.

Dreaming September 1, 2003 Victor I. Spoormaker, Jan Van den Bout, Eli J. G. Meijer 54 citations

Goal of this series of cases was to investigate lucid dreaming treatment for nightmares. Hypotheses were that lucid dreaming treatment would decrease nightmare frequency and state/trait anxiety, and improve the quality of sleep. Eight participants received a one-hour individual session, which consisted of lucid dreaming exercises and discussing possible constructive solutions for the nightmare....

Phenomenal qualities of nightmare experience in a prospective study of college students.

Dreaming June 1, 2002 Ross Levin, Gary Fireman 26 citations

The present study investigated the relationship between both state and global measures of phenomenal qualities of nightmare experience and nightmare prevalence as measured prospectively by dream logs. Sixty three frequent nightmare individuals and 53 controls completed a retrospective measure of their sleep and dreaming processes and kept a dreaming and nightmare log for 21 consecutive nights....

Questionnaires and diaries as research instruments in dream research: Methodological issues.

Dreaming March 1, 2002 Michael Schredl 162 citations

Dream questionnaires are widely used in dream research to measure dream recall frequency and various aspects of dream life. The present study has investigated the intercorrelation between questionnaire and diary measures. 285 participants completed a dream question-naire and kept a dream diary over a two-week period. Results indicate that keeping a dream diary increased dream recall in low and...

A note on the social referents of dreams.

Dreaming March 1, 2001 Montague Ullman 7 citations

Social as well as personal referents appear in dreams and, when recognized as such, provide insight into how unresolved social issues seep into the personal domain at an unconscious level. Dream-sharing groups (because of the time available and other factors) offer a particularly favorable opportunity to observe this interplay. The truth-telling nature of dreaming consciousness not only exposes...

A historical loop of one hundred years: Similarities between 19th century and contemporary dream research.

Dreaming March 1, 2000 Sophie Schwartz 35 citations

Contemporary cognitive and neuropsychological approaches to dreaming show striking methodological and conceptual similarities with the scientific dream literature of the last century. The use of introspective dream reports and the emphasis on dream phenomenology are characteristic of both periods but were bannished during the first half of this century, the former by behaviorism, the latter by...

Dream content and personality: Thick vs. Thin boundaries.

Dreaming December 1, 1999 Michael Schredl, Gerard Schäfer, Friedrich Hofmann et al. 61 citations

Using dream diary procedures and statistically controlling for age and gender, the present study investigated the relationship between Hartmann's (1991) boundary concept and various aspects of dreaming. Results with a sample of young adults confirmed earlier findings that persons with thin boundaries recall dreams (including nightmares) more often, report dreams that are more negative and...

Age changes in dream recall in adulthood.

Dreaming March 1, 1996 Leonard M. Giambra, Rex E. Jung, Alicia Grodsky 62 citations

Dream recall was measured retrospectively with the Night Dreaming Scale of the Imaginal Processes Inventory. Evidence supports a high degree of correspondence among methods which assess dreaming frequency. A cross-sectional sample (17-92 years old, n = 2328) found fewer dreams recalled with increasing age. Women recalled more dreams and showed a less rapid decrease in frequency than men....

A psycholinguistic method for analyzing two modalities of thought in dream reports.

Dreaming March 1, 1996 Maria Casagrande, Cristiano Violani, Mario Bertini 18 citations

Following the general idea of a substantial bydimensionality of mind, a cognitive psycholinguistic model is proposed attempting to describe how two thinking modalities - named Y and X - may contribute to the production of a dream report. Based on this model, two sets of syntactical-lexical categories were defined whose counts, divided for report length, should indicate the contribution of the...