This article analyzes gender differences in the dream content of Iranian college students and compares the findings with normative American findings and with findings from studies of Indian and Japanese college students. The study utilized 218 dream reports collected with the Most Recent Dream method from 103 females and 115 males at the University of Tehran in Tehran. In general, the Iranian findings are similar to findings in the American, Indian, and Japanese studies. However, there were differences from the American norms that were sometimes similar to differences also found in Indian and Japanese college students, which may reflect cultural differences between Eastern and Western cultures. Future investigations with larger samples may reveal further the main interests and concerns of Iranian college students and help develop a better understanding of cross-cultural similarities and differences in dream content.

Several different beliefs about the importance of dreams have been recorded from ancient times to the present. In ancient Iranian culture, dreams had a special importance. Similarly, in modern times, Iranians pay much attention to their dreams. The present questionnaire study of several beliefs about dreams describes the beliefs of 486 Iranian university students in Tehran (men ϭ 253; women ϭ 233) from the Tarbiat Modares and Allameh Tabatabai University about their dreams through administering of the My Beliefs About Dream Questionnaire (MBDQ). The two main objectives of the research were to examine the psychometric properties of the MBDQ and to describe the dream beliefs of Iranian college students. Factor analysis of the MBDQ yielded a six-factor solution. In general, the present investigation revealed moderate to high construct validity and reliability of the MBDQ. A wide range of variation in dream beliefs was found among Iranian college students, with religious beliefs having much influence upon them.

Objective: The current study examines the relationship between sleep duration and variability with sensation-seeking and risky behaviors in a sample of Iranian undergraduate students. Methods:The participants in this study were 385 undergraduate students in Tehran. To collect data, we used the Sensation Seeking Scale, Risk Behavior Scale, and two questions related to sleep duration and sleep variability. Results: The results showed a positive relationship between sleep deprivation and irregular sleep schedule with sensation-seeking and risk behavior tendencies in students. Discussion: This association could point to an indirect impact of sleep deprivation on sensationseeking and risk behavior, for example, by altering brain regions responsible for self-control.

For medieval Sufis, dreams were a portal to the spiritual realm. Their ideas are a valuable source for tracing and better understanding the sociocultural beliefs of today's Muslim people regarding the meaning and function of veridical dreams. We used the thematic analysis method to analyze 387 dream narratives from 34 books by Sufis from the 9th to the 15th centuries to determine how dreams were represented in these works. Five major themes were extracted: 1. dream as a mode of communication and as a messenger; 2. dream as a means of endorsement and validation; 3. dream as a source of feedback and as a premonition of 1’s destiny; 4. dream as a means of divination and prophecy, and 5. dream as influential in daily lives. We discuss each of these themes, their meanings, and implications separately, and present different ethnohistorical evidence for these themes. Understanding Sufi culture regarding dreams might thus help us in better understanding the cultural foundations of these ideas in Muslim communities.