Dream Content is Continuous with Waking Thought, Based on Preoccupations, Concerns, and Interests

Domhoff, G. William

doi:10.1016/j.jsmc.2010.01.010

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Together these results suggest that the negative consequences usually encountered by patients with PI during the day, as well as their tendency for rumination (Morin et al, 2011), are not reflected in dreams through individual dream content per se, but through a more generalized negative oneiric content. That said, the dreams of GSCs tended to contain more positive emotions than those of patients with PI, which is in tune with the continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2010). Apart from the elevated negative content overall, positive emotions in dreams might be the only single variable that could be used to help differentiate patients with PI from GSC.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…The most prominent model in dream research, the continuity hypothesis (Hall & Nordby, 1972), states that the dream is largely a reflection of the individuals' waking experiences (for a review, see Domhoff, 2003;2010). As such, this model could suggest that the negative pre-sleep cognitive arousal (for a review, see Hantsoo et al, 2013) experienced by patients with PI could translate into their dream activity, resulting in more negatively toned dreams.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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REM dream activity of insomnia sufferers: a systematic comparison with good sleepers

et al. 2016

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

REM dream activity of insomnia sufferers: a systematic comparison with good sleepers

et al. 2016

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“…The authors found differences in dream content between Palestinian children living in quiet versus violent locations and concluded that traumatic experiences increase the frequency and intensity of threatening dream content. Additionally, the threatening and violent content of Gazan children's nightmares supports the continuity hypothesis, which posits that the dreamer's experiences and concerns in waking life are the main sources of dream content [27].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 67%

The nature of posttraumatic nightmares and school functioning in war-affected youth

Harb

Schultz

2020

PLoS ONE

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Children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events demonstrate a variety of posttraumatic symptoms, including recurrent nightmares, as well as adverse reactions in the school setting. The current study examined nightmare symptoms, posttraumatic stress, sleep disturbance, and self- and teacher-reported school functioning of 64 youths in the Gaza Strip, ages 12 to 16, who have lived through three wars and experience ongoing conflict and political insecurity. Students were treatment-seeking for sleep-problems and reported, on average, five nightmares per week for an average of three years, with concomitant disrupted sleep, fear of going to sleep, and not feeling rested in the morning. Both teachers and students reported that participants exhibited impaired academic functioning and daytime sleepiness. The content of the students’ nightmares demonstrated frightening themes of being under attack and loss of self-efficacy/control; threat levels were high, and almost 60% included the threat of death. Approximately half of the nightmares included surreal elements in addition to more realistic scenes of violence. Participants in the study demonstrated substantial posttraumatic sleep problems with intensely distressing, frequent and chronic nightmares, andnightmare symptoms were associated with impairment in school functioning. Given the disruptive and distressing nature of these students’ nightmare disturbance, we suggest that increasing self-efficacy in relation to the experience of recurrent nightmares may be a good point of intervention with these recurrently traumatized youth. Thus, increasing the understanding of students’ nightmare symptoms may lead to ameliorating the suffering of youths in war zones and may have positive effects on their school functioning.

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“…Although the same dream themes or symbols may represent different things to different people, the present findings suggest the presence agerelated similarities as well as differences in how conceptual metaphors (e.g., Lakoff, 1993) may be used in recurrent dreams to structure oneiric representations of emotional stressors and preoccupations. Much work remains to be done, however, before we may understand the mechanisms by which particular dream themes come to represent embodied simulations and enactments of the dreamer's personal conceptions, concerns or difficulties (e.g., Domhoff, 2010Domhoff, , 2011.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The content of recurrent dreams in young adolescents

Gauchat

Séguin

McSween-Cadieux

et al. 2015

Consciousness and Cognition

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Studies on children's recurrent dreams have been largely anecdotal and based on adults' recollections of dreams experienced during childhood. We collected 102 reports of recurrent dreams from a sample of young adolescents aged between 11 and 15 years and scored the narratives using a range of content measures, including in relation to the threat simulation theory (TST) of dreaming. The most frequently reported themes involved confrontations with monsters or animals, followed by physical aggressions, falling and being chased. Recurrent dreams were more likely to include negative content elements than positive elements. Only half of the recurrent dreams contained threatening elements and their analysis provided mixed support for the TST. Differences between the content of recurrent dreams reported by young adolescent versus adults are discussed as are possible sex effects and key issues that remain to be addressed by future research.

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Dream Content is Continuous with Waking Thought, Based on Preoccupations, Concerns, and Interests

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

REM dream activity of insomnia sufferers: a systematic comparison with good sleepers

REM dream activity of insomnia sufferers: a systematic comparison with good sleepers

The nature of posttraumatic nightmares and school functioning in war-affected youth

The content of recurrent dreams in young adolescents

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