Dream recall as a function of method of awakening.
A Shapiro, Donald R. Goodenough, R B Gryler
Psychosomatic Medicine March 1, 1963 DOI: 10.1097/00006842-196303000-00009 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 11 |
| Population | Human subjects awakened from dream periods during sleep |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Humans Dreams Sleep |
| Key findings | Gradual awakenings from REM periods more often led subjects to believe they had been awake or thinking rather than dreaming, compared with abrupt awakenings. Reports of dreamless sleep were more frequent in the early REM periods of the night than in later ones, and arousal thresholds indicated lighter sleep across successive REM periods. |
Abstract
Eleven subjects were awakened from dream periods (defined in terms of Dement and Kleitman's eye-movement criteria) and asked to describe their dream experience. Subjects more often believed that they were awake and/or thinking when the awakening was gradual than when the awakening was abrupt (P <.05). Reports in which the subject believed that he had been awakened from a dreamless sleep were more frequent for the first several eye-movement periods of the night than for eye-movement periods which occurred toward morning (P <.05). Depth of sleep, as defined by the arousal threshold, also became lighter for successive eye-movement periods during the night (P <.05).
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 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 8
- Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives Frontiers in Psychology 2011
- Dreaming is a conscious experience in its own right: proponents of non-cognitive and non-executive theories of dreaming suffer from a retrospective illusion of their waking extended self. Consciousness and Cognition May 30, 2025
- Dream recall frequency is associated with attention rather than with working memory abilities. Journal of Sleep Research October 1, 2022
- Methodological Recommendations to Control for Factors Influencing Dream and Nightmare Recall in Clinical and Experimental Studies of Dreaming. Frontiers in Neurology 2020
- Auditory inhibition of rapid eye movements and dream recall from REM sleep. Sleep March 1, 2009
and 3 more in the library