Failure to Recall Dream Content: Contentless vs Dreamless Reports
Perceptual and Motor Skills June 1, 1972 DOI: 10.2466/pms.1972.34.3.1000 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Contentless and dreamless reports are functionally different phenomena, as shown by their differing distributions across menstrual cycle phases, recording nights, and total sleep time. |
Abstract
Data from three separate studies support the hypothesis that contentless and dreamless reports obtained in dream-recall experiments are functionally, as well as descriptively, different phenomena. Distributions of percentages of contentless and dreamless reports (a) for different phases of the menstrual cycle, (b) over a three-day recording period, and (c) for length of total sleep time were qualitatively different. It is suggested that, at minimum, investigators should distinguish between contentless and dreamless reports rather than viewing them as a homogeneous nonrecall phenomenon.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Student volunteers trained to become lucid and signal lucidity with horizontal eye... | 2009 | Observational study | n = 6 |
| Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Young adults with a mean age of 20 years | 2002 | Prospective observational study | n = 116 |
| Long-term effects of extreme situational stress on sleep and dreaming Survivors of traumatic events who complained of sleep disturbances, compared with... | 1987 | Case-control study | n = 11 |
| The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Adults who reported dreams | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 147 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 14
- Nondual Awareness and Minimal Phenomenal Experience. Frontiers in Psychology 2020
- Dream Recall: State or Trait Variable? Part II: State Factors, Investigations and Final Conclusions Imagination, Cognition and Personality March 1, 1997
- Did I have a dream last night? White dreaming as metacognitive feelings Mind & Language January 22, 2026
- A comparison of measures of emotions from written reports of dreams and waking experiences 1984
- Brain reactivity to emotion persists in NREM sleep and is associated with individual dream recall. Cerebral cortex communications 2022
and 9 more in the library