A Content Analysis of Dion McGregor’s Sleep-Talking Episodes

Abstract

This article explores the content of the somniloquies of Dion McGregor, the most extensive sleep talker ever recorded, and compares these with dream content from normative male dreams on the Hall and van de Castle Content Scales and Hobson Bizarreness Scales. On the Hall and van de Castle Scales, the somniloquies contained significantly more female characters relative to males than for the norms, more familiar characters and friends, but fewer family members. The dreamer-as-character was much likelier to be either a befriender or an aggressor than in the normative dreams but much less likely to engage in physical aggression specifically. There was less aggression, friendliness, or sex per character in McGregor’s narratives, as well as less of all three of these types of interaction total than for the norms, but much more self-negativity. There were a lower percentage of negative emotions, good fortune, and success, but the somniloquies were similar to the norms in their levels of misfortune and failure. On the Hobson Bizarreness Scales, the McGregor somniloquies were not differentiated from dreams on three of six scales—having similar levels of discontinuity of plot, characters, objects, and actions but had slightly fewer incongruities of plot, and many fewer instances of incongruity or uncertainly of thought. These findings are discussed in terms of presumed brain activation differences—more frontal activation—and also in terms of McGregor’s personal idiosyncrasies.