Dreaming and personality: Wake-dream continuity, thought suppression, and the Big Five Inventory.
J. Malinowski
Consciousness and Cognition December 15, 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2015.10.004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 106 |
| Population | Participants who reported their Most Recent Dream; 83 dreams were recent enough for analysis |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Trait thought suppression was positively correlated with participants' ratings of dreaming of waking-life emotions, and high suppressors reported dreaming more of their waking-life emotions than low suppressors. The authors suggest this may lend support to the compensation theory of dreams and/or the ironic process theory of mental control. |
Abstract
Studies have found relationships between dream content and personality traits, but there are still many traits that have been underexplored or have had questionable conclusions drawn about them. Experimental work has found a 'rebound' effect in dreams when thoughts are suppressed prior to sleep, but the effect of trait thought suppression on dream content has not yet been researched. In the present study participants (N=106) reported their Most Recent Dream, answered questions about the content of the dream, and completed questionnaires measuring trait thought suppression and the 'Big Five' personality traits. Of these, 83 were suitably recent for analyses. A significant positive correlation was found between trait thought suppression and participants' ratings of dreaming of waking-life emotions, and high suppressors reported dreaming more of their waking-life emotions than low suppressors did. The results may lend support to the compensation theory of dreams, and/or the ironic process theory of mental control.
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 15
- What about dreams? State of the art and open questions Journal of Sleep Research April 13, 2022
- Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams Nature and Science of Sleep 2018
- Bizarreness of Lucid and Non-lucid Dream: Effects of Metacognition. Frontiers in Psychology 2019
- Relationship Between Personality Types in MBTI and Dream Structure Variables Frontiers in Psychology August 12, 2020
- Imagetic and affective measures of memory reverberation diverge at sleep onset in association with theta rhythm Neuroimage October 17, 2022
and 10 more in the library
Cites 9
- The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Journal of Sleep Research May 26, 2004
- Questionnaires and diaries as research instruments in dream research: Methodological issues. Dreaming March 1, 2002
- Dream content and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study of the continuity hypothesis Journal of Clinical Psychology 2005
- The effects of suppressing intrusive thoughts on dream content, dream distress and psychological parameters Journal of Sleep Research May 16, 2013
- A replication of the 5-7 day dream-lag effect with comparison of dreams to future events as control for baseline matching. Consciousness and Cognition June 1, 2011
and 4 more in the library