Associations Between Alexithymia, Negative Dream Emotions, and Nightmares: A Study Using Most Recent Dream Reports

People with higher alexithymia—difficulty identifying and describing feelings—tend to have more negative dream emotions, more frequent nightmares, and greater nightmare distress. In a sample of 282 Japanese adults, those with higher alexithymia scores reported more intense anger, sadness, and confusion in their most recent dream, but no difference in positive dream emotions. The findings suggest that waking emotional difficulties carry over into dream content, supporting the continuity hypothesis and affect network dysfunction model.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing feelings and a tendency toward externally oriented thinking. This study investigated the relationship between alexithymia and dream emotions among 282 Japanese adults using the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Japanese version of the Mannheim Dream Questionnaire (MADRE), and a Most Recent Dream report including subjective ratings of eight specific emotions. The analysis revealed that higher alexithymia scores were modestly but consistently associated with a more negative overall emotional tone of dreams, higher nightmare frequency, greater nightmare distress, and a higher frequency of dreams affecting daytime mood. Subjective ratings of the Most Recent Dream further indicated that individuals with higher alexithymia tendencies experienced more intense negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, and confusion/shock,whereas no significant association was found with positive dream emotions. These findings may be explained by the continuity hypothesis and the affect network dysfunction model, suggesting that waking emotional tendencies may be reflected in dream content and emotional processing during sleep.