Dreamland—a dream content questionnaire in German based on the English version

Dream research faces challenges due to limited, unstandardized, or labor-intensive questionnaires, leading to divergent results and poor comparability. The Dreamland Questionnaire, developed in 1997 and subsequently revised and partially validated, offers a short, easy-to-use tool covering dream quantities, qualities, and lucidity, and encourages dreamers to write down their dreams. It has been used to show that dreams collected in the laboratory differ from those at home, and that emotionality ratings differ between dreamers and external raters. The questionnaire is available in German.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract In dream research there exists a multitude of dream questionnaires and dream content analysis scales. However, many of them are either limited, not standardized or validated, or require a lot of effort. At the same time there are often divergent or even contradictory results in dream research, and comparability between different studies is often limited. Large sample sizes are rare but would be necessary for representative and compelling findings. For studies analyzing large samples of dreams, short and easy-to-use questionnaires would be of great assistance. As an easy-to-use questionnaire that covers all relevant dream aspects, the Dreamland Questionnaire, was developed in 1997. The questionnaire has since been revised and partially validated. In this paper, we give an overview of the questionnaire and its underlying methodology. The questionnaire is separated into three parts measuring dream quantities and dream qualities as well as lucidity. The questionnaire further encourages the dreamer to write down their dream. In different studies it has already been used to show that dreams sampled in the laboratory and dreams sampled at home differ and that emotionality in dreams differs if rated by the dreamer themselves or by external raters. The questionnaire is also available in German.