Psychology Research Digest
Dreaming - Vol 35, Iss 1
Dreaming is a multidisciplinary journal, the only professional journal devoted specifically to dreaming. The journal publishes scholarly articles related to dreaming from any discipline and viewpoint. This includes biological aspects of dreaming and sleep/dream laboratory research; psychological articles of any kind related to dreaming; clinical work on dreams regardless of theoretical perspective (Freudian, Jungian, existential, eclectic, etc.); anthropological, sociological, and philosophical articles related to dreaming; and articles about dreaming from any of the arts and humanities.
Trauma or transcendence? The relationship between near-death experiences and dreaming.
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are exceptional states of consciousness reported by many individuals who come close to death. Unusual dream phenomena such as more intense and vivid dreams, higher dream recall, and increased lucid dreaming have been purported to occur after NDEs, however, a comprehensive assessment of the dream experiences and attitudes of NDE survivors remains unexplored. Moreover, it remains unknown whether anomalous dream experiences stem from the actual NDE or the traumatic experience of coming close to death. In this study, 138 NDE survivors, 45 participants who experienced a life-threatening event but without NDE, and 129 participants who had never come close to death completed a quantitative questionnaire assessing trauma symptoms and a range of dream-related variables. The NDE group reported significantly more lucid dreams, creative and problem-solving dreams, precognitive dreams, and out-of-body experiences during sleep than both other groups of participants. Furthermore, these experiences appeared to be primarily related to the NDE rather than trauma symptomology. Findings continue to suggest a relationship between nonordinary states and expanded awareness more broadly—whether experienced during sleep or wakefulness—offering further insights into the phenomenon of consciousness in general. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related distress and social isolation on dreams.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had widespread psychological and social impacts globally. This study investigated the effect of pandemic-related distress and social isolation on the dream experiences of individuals in Hong Kong. A sample of 213 participants completed measures assessing COVID-19 psychological distress, objective and perceived social isolation, dream intensity, and dream motifs. The results showed that higher COVID-19 psychological distress was associated with greater objective and perceived social isolation. Importantly, prior COVID-19 infection status was found to moderate the relationships among distress, social isolation, and specific aspects of dream experiences. For those with a prior COVID-19 infection, psychological distress predicted more intense dream experiences and more grandiose dream themes. These findings suggest that the multifaceted psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly influenced individuals’ dream lives, with prior infection status playing an important moderating role. The results provide insights into the complex interplay among the pandemic’s effects, social isolation, and the subjective dream world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Dream images in women during COVID-19 in México.
This article presents the final results from research considering dream images during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Mexico. The sample consisted of nine subjects, with an age range of 18–38 years of age, living in México during the lockdown of the first wave of COVID-19 (beginning in March 2020). This was a multiple case study, with a qualitative approach. Eleven subjects participated voluntarily in an average of two to three in-depth clinical interviews lasting 1 hr. During the interview, participants were asked to share their most recent dream. They then proceeded to find meaning in the dream imagery through an analytical dialogue in conversation with the interviewer. After gathering all the data, the authors proceeded to use the narrative method and grounded theory to process the findings. Results showed a predominance of images charged with negative emotions, especially fear. Additionally, participants expressed a perception of vulnerability associated with a lack of control and unclear boundaries. Finally, participants presented, through their dream images, an unstable, dangerous, and misleading worldview. Few dreams literally referred to the pandemic, and only two participants repeatedly mentioned being affected by COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Exploration of contentless awareness during sleep: An online survey.
This article presents the results of the first study part of the research project “Objectless sleep experiences” aimed at exploring the phenomenological blueprints of conscious sleep states that lack a distinct object of awareness. A total of 573 responses were collected from an online survey that asked about the incidence, frequency, and phenomenology of a range of sleep phenomena. The survey’s results provide a better understanding of the variety of sleep experiences by yielding preliminary insights into the phenomenology of objectless sleep experiences. Additionally, the results show that putative instances of objectless awareness during sleep are rare. From the thematic analysis, reports of objectless sleep experiences were characterized as a state of “void,” “emptiness,” or simply an awareness of the sleeping state. Moreover, two sorts of temporal dynamics of this sort of experience were distinguished from the reports: following the dissolution of a dream scene or arising spontaneously during sleep without recall of what preceded it. Furthermore, the results provide preliminary insights into the phenomenology of certain waking experiences that some have regarded as potentially related to instances of objectless sleep awareness. Such experiences include the phenomenon of white dreaming, the feeling of knowing, upon awakening, that one had a dream but was unable to recall its content. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 18 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Archetypal dreams correlated with physical health.
The traditional Chinese medicine implies that physical health problem is related to dreaming of bizarre and usual dreams. Carl Jung argues that archetypal dreams are more bizarre and unusual than everyday dreams. Here, we explored whether individual differences in physical health problems were related to dreaming of archetypal dreams. In total, 106 participants completed a questionnaire, which measured individual differences in physical health problems and dreams. Then, the archetypality of these dreams was rated by both participants themselves and external judges. The results showed that people with a higher physical health problem score had more archetypal dreams than those with lower scores. The results suggested that individual differences in physical health problem were related to bizarre and unusual dreams. In addition, the results indicate that some dreams are related to physical situations. Thus, there may be a need for some cognitive dream theories to consider the effect of physical health problem on dreams. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 30 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Automatic dream content analysis finds effects of gender, age, and blindness on word use.
Links between waking life and dreaming are still far from well understood. The continuity hypothesis states “There is considerable congruence between what a person dreams about at night and what he does or thinks about when he is awake” (Hall & Nordby, 1972, p. 125). With automatic content analysis software, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, we analyzed word frequencies in dream reports to test the continuity hypothesis. People’s differences in gender, age, and whether they are blind or sighted in waking life are associated with different frequencies of word usage. In Studies 1, 2, and 3, we found that different word frequencies found in waking life are also found in dream reports. Further, in Study 4, we applied a machine learning technique and built support vector machine models using word frequencies in dream reports to discriminate between binary characteristics of a person based on the content of the person’s dreams, for the characteristics of male/female and sighted/blind. The models well predicted these binary characteristics of the dreamers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Typical dreams among Japanese people: Gender and age differences.
The two aims of this study were to examine gender and age differences in typical Japanese dreams and further compare them with data from other cultures. A total of 206 Japanese youth, 253 adults, and 100 elderly people were surveyed. “Recent impressive dreams” reported by participants were rated using the Typical Dream Questionnaire (Nielsen et al., 2003). The results showed that the prevalence of typical dreams was low, but the ranking and frequent themes were in line prior studies. Regarding gender differences, only one item “arriving too late” was significant. In terms of age differences, five items showed significance. Youth reported dreaming more frequently about “school, teachers, studying,” and “being chased or pursued.” On the other hand, adults reported dreaming more about “finding money.” The theme of “a person now dead being alive” was most prevalent among the elderly, followed by adults. Lastly, “become a child again” was commonly reported by both the elderly and adults. We conclude that these differences support the continuity hypothesis. In addition, typical dreams were considered to have some degree of universality across cultures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Characteristics of typical Japanese dreams: Relationships with age, gender, and self-construal.
Several types of dream content are universally reported by many people, and it is believed that typical dreams suggest people’s shared mentality and psychological themes. The purpose of this study was to investigate typical dreams among Japanese people in relation to age, gender, and self-construal. An online questionnaire was administered to 400 nonclinical Japanese participants. Participants were asked to answer scales to investigate typical dream frequencies and self-construal. The results revealed age and gender differences in dream contents with respect to typical dream frequencies. In addition, some typical dreams had an increased frequency in relation to anthropophobia, an independent view of self, and an interdependent view of self. The effects of age and the association with anthropophobia suggest that typical dreams may occur in the process of establishing the self from a state of psychological immaturity. In addition, gender differences and the relationship between the independent and interdependent views of self in the frequency of typical dreams suggest psychological themes that arise in the process of self-establishment in Japanese people and the direction in which the ego is oriented for social adaptation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.
- Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person (1961)
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