Evidence for preferentially dreaming of waking-life experiences that are relevant to one’s life story.

Abstract

The continuity hypothesis of dreaming proposes that waking-life experiences can be incorporated into dreams. On the other hand, it is proposed that dreams may reflect the process of sleep-dependent consolidation for autobiographical memories. A model of autobiographical memory emphasizes the self's role and goals in remembering. Based on this model, we hypothesized that waking-life experiences that are relevant to one's life story are preferentially incorporated into dreams. Participants (N = 30) kept daily logs and dream diaries for 7 consecutive days, and they matched waking-life experiences to dream reports. In addition, two external judges rated the degree to which each event was meaningful. Our results showed that waking-life experiences that were incorporated into dreams were more emotional and more meaningful and had more impact on one's life than those that were not incorporated into dreams. These results may support our hypothesis.

Associations between autobiographical memory and dreaming: An individual-differences approach.

“…First, in line with our hypothesis and previous experimental research on the role of autobiographical memory in dreaming (Grenier et al, 2005; Malinowski & Horton, 2014a, 2014b; Wang et al, 2021), we found that individuals who report that they generally remember their past well and have vivid and clear recollections of the past (i.e., higher scores on the ART) were more inclined to experience their dreams as meaningful, vivid, entertaining, and as reflections of their past, present and future (i.e., higher scores on the IDEA dimensions of dream significance, recall, entertainment, guidance and continuity). These findings provide a new perspective on the relation of dreams to autobiographical memory by showing that not only does dreaming reflect the content of specific autobiographical memories, but also that the way people generally remember their personal past is closely associated with their general dream experiences.…”

“…This factor showed that the tendency to consider one’s personal memories to be vivid, as well as coherent and relevant to one’s life story and identity, was associated with the tendency to experience meaningful and self-relevant dreams. Given that people typically rely on their autobiographical memories to construct their sense of identity, life story, and meaning in life (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), and that dreams often include fragments of personally relevant autobiographical memories (Wang et al, 2021), it might be that, for some people, dreaming is an essential part of their identity, life story, and life meaning construction. This notion remains understudied and may be of interest for future work (Morewedge & Kupor, 2018).…”

“…not addressing Freud's central thesis that dreams are symbolic fulfillments of unconscious wishes, contemporary research on the continuity hypothesis of dreaming has validated Freud's early suggestions about the crucial role autobiographical memory plays in dreams, by showing that fragments of recent and remote personal past experiences-particularly those that are highly emotional and perceived as relevant to one's life story and one's self-are routinely incorporated into dreams (Cappeliez, 2008; M. J. Fosse et al, 2003;Grenier et al, 2005;Malinowski & Horton, 2014a, 2014bSchredl, 2006;Wang et al, 2021).…”

A coding system for correlations between waking-life experiences and dreams.

“…This kind of method has been used by some research (e.g., Eichenlaub et al, 2019; J. E. Malinowski & Horton, 2014; van Rijn et al, 2015; Wang, Feng, & Shen, 2021).…”

Memory reactivations during sleep: a neural basis of dream experiences?

“…As observed for memory reactivations, dreams preferentially incorporate novel [68,69], emotionally intense (e.g., [70,71]), and personally meaningful (e.g., [40,72]) experiences.…”