Dream Recall, Dream Length, and Sleep Duration: State or Trait Factor
Michael Schredl, Iris Reinhard
Perceptual and Motor Skills April 1, 2008 DOI: 10.2466/pms.106.2.633-636 (opens in new tab)
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractLonger sleep is expected to increase dream recall because it provides more REM sleep, yet earlier studies on habitual sleep duration and dream recall have shown mixed results, while experimentally changing sleep duration does have a clear effect. Analyzing 444 participants' diaries over 14 days, the authors found that both within-person day-to-day changes and between-person differences in sleep duration influence how often people remember their dreams.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 444 |
| Population | Participants who kept sleep diaries |
| Duration | 14 days |
| Key finding | Both intra-individual fluctuations and interindividual differences in sleep duration affect dream recall frequency. |
Abstract
Longer sleep duration should be related to dream recall (longer REM sleep), but previous findings regarding the relationship between habitual sleep duration and dream recall frequency have been conflicting, whereas experimental manipulation of sleep duration yielded a significant effect. The analysis of diaries kept by the 444 participants over 14 days indicated that intra-individual fluctuations and interindividual differences in sleep duration affect dream recall.