Who Keeps a Dream Journal? Sociodemographic and Personality Factors

Abstract

A fascinating area of dream research is the analysis of long dream series. However, research regarding differences between long-term journalists and normal persons is lacking. The present online survey (N = 2,492) focused on the relationship between the Big Five personality dimensions and frequency of recording dreams. As expected, dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and attitude towards dreams were related to the frequency of recording dreams. Unexpectedly, conscientiousness was negatively related to recording dreams—a finding that warrants further research. Similarly, the effects of education and agreeableness on recording dreams are not yet understood. Given those interindividual differences, one should be cautious in generalizing findings obtained from long dream series.