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Who Dreams of the Deceased? The Roles of Dream Recall, Grief Intensity, Attachment, and Openness to Experience

Joshua C. Black, K. Belicki, Jessica Emberley-Ralph

Dreaming March 1, 2019 DOI: 10.1037/drm0000100 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Cross-sectional survey with path analysis Peer reviewed
Sample size 268
Population U.S. residents who lost a romantic partner or spouse in the previous 12–24 months (Study 1) and U.S. residents whose dog or cat died in the previous 6 months (Study 2)
Topics Dreaming
Key findings Frequency of dream recall showed direct effects on dreaming of the deceased in both studies; grief intensity and openness to experience also showed direct effects in the pet-loss study, and grief, openness, and attachment showed indirect effects through dream recall or grief and dream recall.

Abstract

This research addressed the question of why some bereaved individuals dream of the deceased whereas others do not. Two studies were conducted. In one, participants were 268 U.S. residents (150 men, 116 women, 1 other, and 1 undisclosed), with an age range of 20 to 70 (M = 33.8), who had lost a romantic partner or spouse in the previous 12 to 24 months. The second study had 162 U.S. residents (88 men and 74 women), aged 18 to 63 (M = 32.1), whose dog or cat had died in the previous 6 months. In both studies, participants completed online questionnaires assessing frequency of dreams of the deceased, general dream recall, consistency of dream recall, themes in dreams of the deceased, grief intensity, attachment to the deceased, and the personality variable of openness to experience. Path analyses found that in both studies frequency of dream recall showed direct effects on dreaming of the deceased, and in the pet loss study, grief intensity and openness to experience also showed direct effects. However, in both studies, grief intensity, openness to experience, and attachment all showed indirect effects either through dream recall (in the case of grief and openness to experience) or through grief intensity and dream recall (in the case of attachment). It is also noteworthy that, in both studies, those who recalled dreams of the deceased endorsed more positive themed dreams of the deceased, which contrasts both with “ordinary” dreaming and with posttraumatic dreams.

Comparable studies

Other cross-sectional and survey studies on dreaming, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Insomnia Symptoms, Nightmares, and Suicidal Ideation in a College Student Sample Undergraduate students at a large, public university in the southeastern United States 2011 Observational cross-sectional survey n = 583
Prevalence and Correlates of Frequent Nightmares: A Community-Based 2-Phase Study Middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese adults from the community, mean age 40.9 years (SD 5.5,... 2010 Cross-sectional survey with subsequent clinical evaluation (two-phase design) n = 8,558
Factors of home dream recall: a structural equation model Adults (general population sample) 2003 Cross-sectional survey with structural equation modeling n = 444
The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams 2014 Online survey n = 684
Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Representative sample of German adults 2011 Cross-sectional survey n = 919

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