Studying dream experience through dream reports: Points of contact between dream research and first-person methods in consciousness science

Abstract

In this chapter, we present the problem of dream reports in philosophy and empirical research, examine how the variability of methods and measures influences research results, and suggest that research on the phenomenological features of dreaming could benefit from insights from first-person methods in consciousness research. We consider two interview-based methods developed for acquiring detailed phenomenological reports on waking subjective experience - descriptive experience sampling (Hurlburt, 1990, 2011) and micro-phenomenology (Petitmengin, 2006) - discuss their applicability in dream research, and outline some promising research directions. [Manuscript for a chapter in Dreaming and Memory: Philosophical Issues; prior to peer-review.]