Did I have a dream last night? White dreaming as metacognitive feelings
Mind & Language January 22, 2026 DOI: 10.1111/mila.70027 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming Lucid dreaming |
| Keywords | Feeling Metacognition White mutation Recall Sleep system call Psychoanalysis Cognitive psychology Metamemory Consciousness Aesthetics |
| Key points | Argues that white dreaming is a metacognitive feeling, akin to tip-of-the-tongue and déjà experiences, and can sometimes be a metacognitive illusion. |
Abstract
While most research on sleep mentation focuses on dream reports, sleep experiences can also include reports lacking content, such as white dreaming —the feeling of knowing one dreamt but being unable to recall its contents. I claim that white dreaming is a metacognitive feeling, akin to tip‐of‐the‐tongue and déjà experiences. Conceiving it this way allows for a more nuanced understanding of its nature and causes. Drawing on research on metacognitive feelings in wakefulness, I suggest that white dreaming can sometimes be a metacognitive illusion : A misleading feeling that seems to arise from a dream but could reflect another kind of sleep experience—or none at all.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 18
- Assessing sleep consciousness within subjects using a serial awakening paradigm Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- What I make up when I wake up: anti-experience views and narrative fabrication of dreams Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- How deep is the rift between conscious states in sleep and wakefulness? Spontaneous experience over the sleep–wake cycle Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences December 13, 2020
- Just in Time—Dreamless Sleep Experience as Pure Subjective Temporality Monash University Research Portal 2015
- Dream Reports and Autobiographical Memory Imagination, Cognition and Personality March 1, 1990
and 13 more in the library