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Nonwaking Responses to Waking Stressors: Dreams and Nightmares1

Cynthia A. Loveland Cook, Robert D. Caplan, Howard M. Wolowitz

Journal of Applied Social Psychology February 1, 1990 DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1990.tb00407.x (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Survey interview study Peer reviewed
Sample size 442
Population Men from the cohort eligible for military duty during the Vietnam Conflict, varying in their participation in that war
Topics Dreaming
Citations 18
Key findings Dreams were over 3.5 times more prevalent than nightmares, yet only nightmare prevalence, frequency, and content were consistently associated with life stressors including combat exposure, childhood and adolescent stressors, and recent life events. The authors propose mechanisms involving affect and cognition, wish fulfillment, and working-through processes to explain links between nonwaking cognitions and stress.

Abstract

A distinction between self‐reported dreams and nightmares made it possible to test the relative sensitivity of these nonwaking cognitions to different kinds of life stressors including combat expasure, childhood and adolescent stressom, and recent life events. Survey interview data were collected on 442 men from the cohort eligible for military duty during the Vietnam Conflict who varied in their partiapation in that war. Dreams were over 3.5 times more prevalent than nightmares. Nevertheless, it was the prevalence, frequency, and content of nightmares, not dreams, that were consistently associated with life stresors. Links between nonwaking cognitions and life stressors are explored with regard to hypothesized mechanisms involving affect and cognition, wish fulfillment, and working‐through processes.

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Communing with the Gods: The Dreaming Brain in Cross-cultural Perspective 2011 Phenomenological study
Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Lucid dreamers 2020 Qualitative study
Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic Global survey participants 2022 Longitudinal mixed-methods study n = 2,240
Dreamers as agents making strategizing efforts exemplify core aggregate of executive function in non-lucid dreaming Archived cross-cultural dreams 2012 Qualitative study using grounded theory

Citations in the library

Cited by 5

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