A preliminary study of dream-telling among mentally healthy elderly: no adverse effects on life or sleep quality.
Arthur Funkhouser, Claude M. Cornu, H P Hirsbrunner, Marcel Bahro
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry October 2000 DOI: 10.1002/1099-1166(200010)15:10<917::aid-gps218>3.0.co;2-8 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Controlled comparison study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Mentally healthy elderly clinical research volunteers |
| Intervention | Regular dream-telling (without interpretation) |
| Key points | Across six measured variables, no significant differences appeared among the dream-telling group and two control groups, indicating that regular dream-telling without interpretation produced no adverse effects in mentally healthy older adults. The authors propose this as a safe baseline for future studies with geriatric patients with mental disorders or older adults undergoing major life events. |
Abstract
While there have been several studies about dreams and dreaming among the elderly, there does not seem to have been any study of the effects of regular dream-telling (without interpretation). Listening to dreams could become a regular part of caring for the elderly and infirm. The effects of regular dream-telling in mentally healthy elderly clinical research volunteers were measured on several variables using standardized testing and self-report: life satisfaction, intrapsychic boundaries, sleep quality, sleep duration, dream recall, dream tone, and dream epoch, and were compared with two control groups. The six variables showed no significant differences among the three groups, indicating that dream-telling produced no adverse effects. The present findings seem to imply that dream-telling is not dangerous for mentally healthy individuals and may thus serve as a baseline for future studies involving geriatric patients with mental disorders or elderly undergoing significant life-events, e.g., bereavement or retirement, using the method of regular dream-telling.