Correlates of home dream recall: reported home sleep characteristics and home dream recall

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.

Depressed Mood, Dream Recall and Contentless Dreams

The study examined the relation between depressed mood and dream report. Levels of depressed mood were assessed nightly on a sample of ninety college students over a ten-day period using a structured diary. Dream reports were obtained each morning during the ten-day period. Depressed mood tended to be higher preceding nights for which dreams were recalled and described than for nights in which there was no memory of dreaming. The opposite pattern was found for reports of contentless dreams; depressed mood tended to be lower preceding reports of contentless dreaming than for nights in which there was no memory of dreaming.

Dream Recall: State or Trait Variable? Part II: State Factors, Investigations and Final Conclusions

The first part of a two article series presented the hypotheses explaining the variation in dream recall, a model of the dream recall process and the empirical data concerning trait factors. The present article includes earlier data concerning state factors, new empirical data on how these influence dream recall, and some final conclusions. State factors such as nocturnal awakenings and focusing on dreams in the morning along with trait factors of fantasy life, creativity and visual memory all play an important part in explaining the variability in dream recall. Additionally, some suggestions for future research in explaining why there is such variability in our ability to recollect what we dreamt in a given night are presented.

Characteristics of poor sleep with the normal human being

1. To investigate the differences between good sleep and poor sleep, 41 sleep records were observed with nine normal male subjects ranging in ages from 22 to 40 years. A comparison was done of the differences of sleep records between the good and poor sleep estimations for each subject. 2. Poor sleep showed significantly shorter total sleep time (P less than 0.01) and significantly shorter stage 2 (P less than 0.05) than good sleep, but there were no differences in stages 1, 3, 4, stage REM, the percentage of every sleep stage to total sleep time, REM latency, mean REM duration, REM cycle and REM density. 3. Poor sleep showed longer latency for falling sleep (P less than 0.10) and a significant increase in stage changes from stage 2 to stage 3 (P less than 0.01) than with good sleep. 4. Poor sleep showed more prolonged awakenings and significantly longer durations spent for awakenings (P less than 0.05). 5. As to awakening in the morning poor sleep showed longer times required from terminal stage 2 and stage 4 and a significantly shorter time from terminal stage REM (stages 2 and 4, P less than 0.10, REM, P less than 0.01). 6. A certain amount of stage 4 and its decreasing seemed to be delayed in poor sleep, though its initial appearance wasn't. 7. REM periods of good sleep peaked at the third or the fourth REM stage and decreased to the fifth but those of poor sleep showed a gradual increasing from the second to the fifth having almost the same durations. 8. Awakenings in the morning often occurred from stage REM or just after an REM stage in poor sleep but in good sleep, on the other hand, occurred from stage 2. 9. The thresholds of natural wakenings from stages 3, 4 and REM of good sleep during the night might be higher than those of poor sleep.