Dream reports and creative tendencies in students of the arts, sciences, and engineering

Altered States of Consciousness, Dissociation, and Dream Recall

In a sample of 71 medical students, dream recall frequency was positively correlated with proneness to altered states of consciousness ( r = .26) measured by the State of Mind and Consciousness Questionnaire and dissociation ( r = .29) measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale II. A regression analysis, however, yielded neither altered states of consciousness nor dissociation, sex, or age to be significant predictors of dream recall frequency. Among women dream recall frequency was associated with proneness to dissociation; among men it was correlated with proneness to altered states of consciousness.

Dream Recall: State or Trait Variable? Part I: Model, Theories, Methodology and Trait Factors

The aim of the present article is to carefully review the research carried out hitherto regarding factors influencing dream recall. With respect to the hypotheses explaining the variation in dream recall frequency (DRF) and a model of the dream recall process, the empirical data has been divided into two groups, trait factors and state factors. In the first part of the article the studies on the influence of trait factors are reviewed. The second part incudes data concerning state factors, new empirical data and some final conclusions. State factors such as nocturnal awakening and focusing on dreams in the morning and trait factors such as fantasy life, creativity and visual memory play a major role in explaining variability in dream recall.

Do Creative People Have More Bizarre Dreams? A Reconsideration

An attempt was made to replicate earlier studies which have found a relation between waking creativity and dream bizarreness. Two-week dream diaries were collected from 126 undergraduates and the dreams scored for bizarreness using Auld's Primary Process Scale and Kluger's Everydayness Scale. Subjects were also administered four commonly used tests of creativity as well as a test of vocabulary knowledge. Dream bizarreness was found to correlate significantly with scores on some but not all the tests of creativity. However, bizarreness correlated most highly with subjects' level of vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, partial correlations of creativity test scores with dream bizarreness were not statistically significant when subjects' level of vocabulary knowledge was controlled for. The authors conclude that the connection between waking creativity and dream bizarreness has not been convincingly demonstrated, and that earlier researchers may have found an association between the two because they failed to control for subjects' verbal intelligence and for dream report length. Data is also provided concerning the relation of creativity to dream recall frequency.

Dream recall frequency: impact of prospective measures and motivational factors

Significant individual differences exist in dream recall frequency (DRF) but some variance is likely attributable to instrument choice in measuring DRF. Three hundred and fifty eight participants estimated their weekly DRF and recorded their dreams in either a narrative log (n = 165) or checklist log (n = 193) for 2-5 weeks. There was an early peak in DRF within the first week of both types of prospective logs after which DRF remained relatively stable. Although the two groups did not differ in their estimated DRF, significantly fewer dreams were reported per week on the narrative logs and only checklist logs yielded significantly higher DRF than participants' questionnaire estimates. The interactions between DRF measures did not vary across groups with low, medium or high baseline levels of DRF. Keeping a dream log does not necessarily increase DRF and narrative logs' time consuming nature can impact subjects' motivation to report all of their dreams over time.

Dream recall and its relationship to sleep, perceived stress, and creativity among adolescents

PURPOSE

To explore associations between dream recall, gender, sleep, perceived stress, and creativity in a large sample of adolescents. In adults, women report a higher frequency of dream recall than men. Moreover, increased awakenings seem to increase dream recall, whereas low sleep quality is associated with low dream recall. In addition, there is some evidence that dream recall is associated with personality traits such as creativity. For adolescents, comparable data from larger samples are missing to date.

METHOD

A total of 5,580 adolescents (mean age: 18.23 years; 3,711 females and 1,869 males) participated in the present study. Participants completed an Internet-administered questionnaire related to dreaming, sleep, perceived stress, and creativity.

RESULTS

As compared with males, female adolescents reported a higher dream recall rate and felt a stronger impact of dreams on the subsequent day. Female adolescents also described themselves as more creative, and reported suffering more from sleep complaints and perceived stress. Multiple regression analyses further revealed that increased dream recall was independently predicted by factors such as female gender, sleep quality, and creativity, whereas perceived stress, awakenings during the night, and sleep duration had no predictive value.

CONCLUSIONS

Similar to the findings of studies conducted on adults, dream recall was also associated with female gender in a large sample of adolescents. Additionally, it seemed that several different factors such as good mood, increased sleep quality, and creativity influenced dream recall. These results can provide a basis for better understanding the psychology of dreams in adolescence. In contrast to nightmares, recalling dreaming is associated with health and well-being.

Absorption in Imaginings, Sex-Role Orientation, and the Recall of Dreams by Males and Females

Questionnaire measures of dream recall frequency, number of sensory qualities in dreams and emotion in dreams were correlated with several imaginal ability and personality variables in male and female college students. Absorption (i.e., subjects' degree of involvement in such activities as daydreaming, watching a movie, etc.) was the most important predictor of dream variables in females. In males sex-role orientation contrary to stereotype (i.e., femininity) was the only variable significantly related to a dream variable (i.e., frequency of dream recall). The implications of these sex differences for research on dream recall are discussed.

Brief report: frequency of dream recall, creativity, and a control for anxiety

Frequency of dream recall ( fDR) correlated with a creativity score on the Remote Associates Test (RAT). This correlation was lowered by anxiety which correlated positively with fDR but negatively with the RAT scores. Control for the biasing effect of anxiety was accomplished by a partial correlation which increased the fDR-RAT correlation.