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The multiplicity of dreams: cognitive-affective correlates of lucid, archetypal, and nightmare dreaming.

Perceptual and Motor Skills October 1, 1990 DOI: 10.2466/pms.1990.71.2.627 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Observational study Peer reviewed
Sample size 141
Population 100 subjects in the first study; 41 subjects selected for relative specialization in each dream form plus a control group equally high on dream recall in the second study
Topics Dreaming Lucid dreaming
Key findings In a first study of 100 subjects, lucid, nightmare, and archetypal-mythological dreams were significantly correlated with each other and with dream recall. In a second study of 41 selected subjects, lucid and archetypal dreamers tended to separate from nightmare sufferers on high imaginativeness, waking mystical experience, spatial/analytic skills, and physical balance, suggesting that dream intensification is expressed positively or negatively depending on these cognitive dimensions.

Abstract

This preliminary research is the first to compare lucid, nightmare, and archetypal-mythological dreams on dimensions important in previous research on each. A first study of 100 subjects showed all three forms significantly correlated with each other and with estimates of dream recall. In a second study, 41 subjects were selected from the above on the basis of relative specialization in each dream form, with a control group equally high on dream recall. Here, the lucid and archetypal dreamers tended to separate themselves from nightmare sufferers on the basis of high imaginativeness, proclivity to waking mystical experience, spatial/analytic skills, and physical balance. It appears that the intensification of dreaming is expressed positively or negatively, depending on variations in these cognitive dimensions.

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
The prevalence of nightmares and their independence from anxiety. Undergraduates 1990 Observational study using daily dream logs n = 220

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