Quantifying auditory impressions in dreams in order to assess the relevance of dreaming as a model for psychosis
PLoS One March 12, 2020 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230212 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 13 |
| Population | Normal, healthy people reporting dreams after spontaneous awakenings from sleep |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 10 |
| Key findings | Auditory impressions were reported in 93.9% of 130 dreams on average, most often other people speaking (83.9% of dreams), followed by the dreamer speaking (60.0%) and other sounds such as music (33.1%). The authors suggest that internally generated auditory sensations are a central component of dreaming in healthy people, typically occurring several times nightly. |
Abstract
A long noted hypothesis is that mechanisms of dreaming play a role in psychotic hallucinations. One challenge for this hypothesis is that while psychotic hallucinations primarily are auditory, dreaming most characteristically is visual. At the same time, previous studies have not explicitly examined auditory impressions in dreaming. Here, we mapped the prevalence and characteristics of auditory impressions in 130 dreams reported after spontaneous awakenings from sleep in 13 normal, healthy people. We instructed participants to report any dream they could recall and to pay particular attention to possible auditory impressions. The participants reported auditory impressions in 93.9% of their dreams on average. The most prevalent auditory type was other people speaking (83.9% of participants' dreams), followed by the dreamer speaking (60.0%), and other types of sounds (e.g. music, 33.1%). Of altogether 407 instances of auditory impressions in the 130 dreams, auditory quality was judged comparable to waking in 46.4%, indeterminate in 50.6%, and absent or only thought-like in 2.9%. The results suggest that also internally generated auditory (verbal) sensations are a central component of dreaming, typically occurring several times every night in normal, healthy people.
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 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 6
- How deep is the rift between conscious states in sleep and wakefulness? Spontaneous experience over the sleep–wake cycle Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences December 13, 2020
- An Exploration of Multilinguals’ Voice-Hearing Experiences Language and Psychoanalysis May 15, 2022
- Dream Experiences During Intensive Care Unit Stay: Occurrence, Content, Vividness and Associated Factors Nursing in Critical Care July 1, 2025
- Lucid and Liminal Dreaming for Creative Writing: Interdisciplinary Investigations and Experiments 2025
- Brain and Environment Interaction: Neuroplasticity of the Visual Cortex and the Roles of Sensory Deprivation, Sleep, and Dreams. Psychiatry July 6, 2026
and 1 more in the library
Cites 12
- Corollary Discharge, Hallucinations, and Dreaming Schizophrenia Bulletin October 7, 2010
- What Is the Link Between Hallucinations, Dreams, and Hypnagogic-Hypnopompic Experiences? Schizophrenia Bulletin June 29, 2016
- The borderlands of waking: Quantifying the transition from reflective thought to hallucination in sleep onset. Consciousness and Cognition April 1, 2016
- Neural correlates of insight in dreaming and psychosis. Sleep Medicine Reviews April 1, 2015
- Experiences of hearing voices: analysis of a novel phenomenological survey. The Lancet Psychiatry March 31, 2015
and 7 more in the library