Dream Recall and Content versus the Menstrual Cycle: A Cross-Sectional Study in Healthy Women.
Ioannis Ilias, Nicholas-Tiberio Economou, Anastasia Lekkou, Andrea Romigi, Eftychia Koukkou
Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) July 21, 2019 DOI: 10.3390/medsci7070081 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractAmong 944 young women surveyed about their menstrual cycle and dream recall, 378 remembered the previous night's dreams. Of those, 199 reported pleasant dream content and 179 reported unpleasant content. Pleasant dream content was associated with the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The hormonal changes during the luteal phase may influence the emotional tone of dreams.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 944 |
| Population | Young women |
| Keywords | Dreams Menstrual cycle Sleep Women |
| Key finding | Pleasant dream content was associated with the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. |
Abstract
The association between sleep and the menstrual cycle has been scarcely studied. This study aimed to investigate the association between dream recall and content and the menstrual cycle among a large sample of young women. To this aim, 944 women were asked about their day of menstrual cycle, whether they remembered the previous night's dreams and if they did so to describe the dream content as pleasant or unpleasant. A total of 378 women recalled the previous nights' dreams, with 199 reporting pleasant dream affect/content and 179 reporting unpleasant dream content. In women who recalled their dreams, there was an association of pleasant dream content with the luteal phase (p = 0.038). In conclusion, in women, the hormonal milieu of the luteal phase may influence dream content.