Dream recall and the contraceptive pill.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease July 1, 1976 DOI: 10.1097/00005053-197607000-00008 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Women students at Edinburgh University |
| Intervention | Contraceptive pill |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | The evidence suggests that women taking a contraceptive pill are more likely to recall dreaming, with the progestagenic component appearing to be the more active one. The authors caution that the data do not exclude other psychosocial explanations and call for further research. |
Abstract
Data collected on women students at Edinburgh University allowed a comparison to be made between those who were taking a contraceptive pill and those who were not. The evidence suggests that women taking a contraceptive pill are more likely to recall dreaming, and that it is the progestagenic component that is the more active one. However, the data collected do not exclude the possibility that the differences observed are the consequence of other psychosocial variables; further research is recommended.
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 |