Sarah C. Weed, Florence M. Hallam and Emma D. Phinney, ‘A Study of the Dream-Consciousness’, American Journal of Psychology, 7 (1896), pp. 405–11.
Shane McCorristine
December 1, 2021 DOI: 10.4324/9781003112822-8 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study |
|---|---|
| Population | The authors and four fellow students |
| Duration | Recording periods of six and five weeks |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key findings | The proportion of night dreams recorded was much larger than in earlier observers' records, supporting the claim that "the sleep of the middle of the night is in no sense a dreamless sleep." Many dreams included explicit imagination, in which the mind pictured probable results or found ways out of difficulties. |
Abstract
This chapter presents the results of a study, by the writers, of their own dreams and of the dream-records of four fellow students. The observations followed the general plan outlined by Miss Calkins, and this description of them lays special stress only on experiences which confirm her conclusions on disputed points or which contradict her results. The dreams were recorded during periods of six and five weeks, and numbered 141, 150 and 50 respectively. The proportion of night dreams is thus much larger than in the case of the earlier observers, and definitely substantiates their assertion that “the sleep of the middle of the night is in no sense a dreamless sleep”. Excluding, of course, the mere presence of the imagination, in which the dream-consciousness consists, many cases of explicit imagination occur in these dreams in which the mind has, as it were, run forward to picture some probable result or to discover some way out of a difficulty.