Integration of waking experience through dreams considered in light of individual differences in implicit learning ability

Self Cite

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.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Xu¹,

Huang²

2021

Self Cite

“…This paradigm has been used by several quantitative studies (e.g., Eichenlaub et al, 2019; J. E. Malinowski & Horton, 2014; van Rijn et al, 2015; Wang, Feng, & Shen, 2021; Wang, Li, et al, 2021). Some of these studies used a single score to represent the correlation between a waking-life experience and a dream (e.g., a 5-point scale, from low correlation [1 point] to high correlation [5 point]), while other studies used the number of similar elements to represent the correlation between a waking-life experience and a dream (e.g., similar characters, similar objects, similar locations, similar actions, similar emotions, and similar themes).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Henley-Einion and Blagrove (2014) argued that the latter kind of rating was better than the former, because it was unclear how to use one single score to represent the correlation between awaking-life experience and a dream. Yet a problem for the latter rating was that how to define the similar elements between waking-life experiences and dreams, because sometimes dreams may not only represent waking-life experiences in a literal way, but also represent waking-life experiences in a more associative way (e.g., Wang, Li, et al, 2021). The latter kind of situation made it difficult to do repetitive research in the area.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wang¹,

Xu²,

Huang³

2024

Self Cite

The correlation between waking-life experiences and dreams could be rated by both dreamers themselves (the self-rating) and independent judges (the external-rating). Yet a problem was whether results of these ratings were meaningful. To address the problem, we compared results of the external-rating with a random condition for coincidental correspondence which instructed judges to rate similar elements between each participant's dreams with another participant's waking-life experiences. Ninetyeight participants recorded major daily activities (MDAs), personally significant events (PSEs), major concerns (MCs), and dreams. Then both the self-rating and the external-rating were adopted. The self-rating found that most of dreams were related to waking-life experiences of the same day, while the external-rating only found about half dreams were related to waking-life experiences. In addition, results suggested that the external-rating could identify meaningful incorporation for both PSEs and MCs being incorporated into dreams, but this was not the case for MDAs, which may indicate that nonemotional waking-life experiences were rarely incorporated into dreams.

“…On the other hand, a reflection of an intrusive thought leads to a rebound of content related to the thought in dreams. As dreams may be concerned with the implicit learning process (Wang, Li, et al, 2021) and weak semantic associates (Wang, Zemmelman, et al, 2021), dream content may contain implicit associates of the intrusive thought, which can provide a supplement function to one's conscious content. This may be in line with the situation that people have a good attitude toward unconsciousness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A presleep consideration of an intrusive thought enhances the possibility of dreaming of it.

Xu¹,

Huang²

2022

Self Cite

This study investigated whether focusing on an intrusive thought before sleeping led to an increased likelihood of dreaming of the thought. A total of 150 participants were randomly assigned to three different kinds of conditions: an expression condition (focus on an intrusive thought for 5 min before sleeping), a suppression condition (suppress an intrusive thought for 5 min before sleeping), and a control condition (think about anything for 5 min before sleeping). Also, they completed a dream diary upon waking. Of them, 126 participants provide valid data for further analysis (40 from the expression condition, 43 from the suppression condition, and 43 from the control condition). The correlation between intrusive thoughts and dream content was rated by participants (self-rating) and two independent judges (external rating). The external rating showed that both a presleep suppression of an intrusive thought and a presleep focusing on an intrusive thought increased the possibility of dreaming of content related to the thought. These results may support the current-concern theory of dreaming, and they may, to some degree, support Carl Jung's compensation theory of dreaming.