The individual determinants of morning dream recall
Valentina Elce, Damiana Bergamo, Giorgia Bontempi, Bianca Pedreschi, Michele Bellesi, Giacomo Handjaras, Giulio Bernardi
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractDream recall varies greatly between people and across nights. In a study of 204 healthy adults aged 18 to 70, attitude toward dreaming, tendency to mind-wander, and sleep patterns were associated with how likely someone was to report a dream upon waking. The probability of recalling specific dream content was predicted by age and vulnerability to interference. Dream recall also fluctuated with nightly changes in sleep patterns and showed seasonal variation. These findings help explain why dream recall differs both between individuals and within the same person over time.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 204 |
| Population | Healthy adults aged 18-70 years |
| Key finding | Attitude toward dreaming, proneness to mind wandering, and sleep patterns predict dream recall probability, while age and vulnerability to interference predict recall of dream content. |
Abstract
Evidence suggests that (almost) everyone dreams during their sleep and may actually do so for a large part of the night. Yet, dream recall shows large interindividual variability. Understanding the factors that influence dream recall is crucial for advancing our knowledge regarding dreams' origin, significance, and functions. Here, we tackled this issue by prospectively collecting dream reports along with demographic information and psychometric, cognitive, actigraphic, and electroencephalographic measures in 204 healthy adults (18-70 y, 113 females). We found that attitude towards dreaming, proneness to mind wandering, and sleep patterns are associated with the probability of reporting a dream upon morning awakening. The likelihood of recalling dream content was predicted by age and vulnerability to interference. Moreover, dream recall appeared to be influenced by night-by-night changes in sleep patterns and showed seasonal fluctuations. Our results provide an account for previous observations regarding inter- and intra-individual variability in morning dream recall.