Gender differences in dreaming in childhood and adolescence: The UK Library study
Markus Georgi, Michael Schredl, Josie Henley, Mark Blagrove
ORCA Online Research @Cardiff 2012 DOI: 10.11588/ijodr.2012.2.9433 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Longitudinal Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 3,534 |
| Population | Children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 11 |
| Key findings | Girls reported recalling, sharing, and listening to dreams more often and reported more nightmares than boys. Gender differences in dream sharing and dream listening increased with age, most prominently from age 13 onward, which the authors suggest points to gender-specific dream socialization possibly shaped by same-sex peer friendships. |
Abstract
This study evaluates gender differences in dream recall frequency, dream sharing frequency, dream listening frequency and nightmare frequency in childhood and adolescence. The sample included 3534 children for the ages from 6 to 18 who completed a brief questionnaire distributed in libraries. We were able to show that overall girls recalled dreams more often, shared dreams more often, listened more often to dreams and reported higher nightmare frequency than boys. For dream sharing frequency and dream listening frequency gender differences increased significantly with age indicating that gender-specific dream socialization might be probable. As this effect was most prominent for adolescents of 13 years and older, one might speculate that the peer group – especially same-sex friendships play an important role in dream socialization. Dream listening is still a very young field of research and longitudinal studies are necessary to study when gender differences in dreaming emerge and whether this processes effect dream recall frequency and other dream variables in adults.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insomnia Symptoms, Nightmares, and Suicidal Ideation in a College Student Sample Undergraduate students at a large, public university in the southeastern United States | 2011 | Observational cross-sectional survey | n = 583 |
| Prevalence and Correlates of Frequent Nightmares: A Community-Based 2-Phase Study Middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese adults from the community, mean age 40.9 years (SD 5.5,... | 2010 | Cross-sectional survey with subsequent clinical evaluation (two-phase design) | n = 8,558 |
| Factors of home dream recall: a structural equation model Adults (general population sample) | 2003 | Cross-sectional survey with structural equation modeling | n = 444 |
| The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams | 2014 | Online survey | n = 684 |
| Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Representative sample of German adults | 2011 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 919 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams Nature and Science of Sleep 2018
- Dreaming in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Health Crisis: Survey Among a Sample of European School Students Frontiers in Psychology April 20, 2021
- Dreaming during the COVID-19 lockdown: a comparison of Italian adolescents and adults Research in Psychotherapy Psychopathology Process and Outcome August 12, 2021
- Gender Differences in the Dream Content of Children and Adolescents: The UK Library Study The American Journal of Psychology September 18, 2019
- Dream habits in a large cohort of preteens and their relation to sleep and nocturnal awakenings. Journal of Sleep Research April 1, 2025
and 2 more in the library