Digital dream analysis: a revised method.

A digital word search method using 40 categories built into the Sleep and Dream Database website can accurately identify distinctive patterns in dream content. Applied to four classic dream sets—the male and female Norm dreams from Hall and Van de Castle, the Engine Man dreams from Hobson, and the Barb Sanders Baseline 250 dreams from Domhoff—the approach replicated findings from previous labor-intensive analyses. The results demonstrate that word search technologies are compatible with traditional methods of dream content analysis, offering greater accuracy, objectivity, and speed.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article demonstrates the use of a digital word search method designed to provide greater accuracy, objectivity, and speed in the study of dreams. A revised template of 40 word search categories, built into the website of the Sleep and Dream Database (SDDb), is applied to four "classic" sets of dreams: The male and female "Norm" dreams of Hall and Van de Castle (1966), the "Engine Man" dreams discussed by Hobson (1988), and the "Barb Sanders Baseline 250" dreams examined by Domhoff (2003). A word search analysis of these original dream reports shows that a digital approach can accurately identify many of the same distinctive patterns of content found by previous investigators using much more laborious and time-consuming methods. The results of this study emphasize the compatibility of word search technologies with traditional approaches to dream content analysis.