Dreams and age.
Marco Zanasi, Simone De Persis, Manlio Caporali, Alberto Siracusano
Perceptual and Motor Skills June 1, 2005 DOI: 10.2466/pms.100.3c.925-938 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational comparative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 299 |
| Population | Dream reports: 148 dreams of elderly people (mean age 75.8 years) and 151 dreams of young people (mean age 22.0) |
| Keywords | Humans Emotions Dreams Mental recall Jungian theory Psychoanalytic interpretation Aging Semantics Adult Middle aged Female Unconscious, psychology |
| Key findings | Dream reports differed significantly by age group: young people used more words denoting emotion and more sentences referring to sight, while older people who explicitly expressed an emotional state shifted between present and past tense more frequently. The authors interpret these differences as age-related patterns in how the unconscious is verbalized in dream texts. |
Abstract
This work evaluated the association of age and dream reports. The verbal reports of 148 dreams of elderly people (M age=75.8 yr.) were compared with 151 dreams of a group of young people (M age=22.0). The dreams were analyzed according to the Jungian vision (which looks at the dream as a text produced by the dreamer's unconscious while sleeping), using processing techniques derived from textual analysis. Significant differences were found between the number of words denoting emotion, with the young people reporting more explicit statements regarding emotional states. Significant differences were found also in use of verb tenses. When older people explicitly expressed an emotional state in a dream text, they shifted between present and past tense more frequently than young people. A significant prevalence in the semantic field of visual sense was evident as younger subjects used more sentences referring to sight than the elderly participants.
Citations in the library
Cited by 16
- Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams Nature and Science of Sleep 2018
- 'I love you': the first phrase detected from dreams. Sleep Science 2022
- Examining dream content and meaning of dreams with English and Italian versions of the storytelling method of dream interpretation heiDOK (Heidelberg University) 2012
- Ontogenetic and Gender Dimensions in a Normative Study of the Dreams of Canadians uO Research 2017
- Circadian and ultradian NREM-REM sleep modulation of dream recall : effects of age and spectral activity edoc (University of Basel) 2011
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Cites 7
- A new neurocognitive theory of dreams. Dreaming March 1, 2001
- Age changes in dream recall in adulthood. Dreaming March 1, 1996
- Aging and Memory for Dreams Perceptual and Motor Skills October 1, 1991
- How Often Do Adults Recall Their Dreams? The International Journal of Aging and Human Development June 1, 1984
- A Comparison of the Emotional Content of Dreams Recalled by Young and Elderly Women The Journal of Psychology 1984
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