The Influence of the Laboratory Situation on the Dreams of the Experimental Subject

Dement, William C.; Kahn, Edwin; Roffwarg, Howard P.

doi:10.1097/00005053-196502000-00002

Cited by 84 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Cohen and Cox (7) utilized only 1 night in the laboratory with no adaptation night while De Koninck and Koulack (8) had their subjects sleep in the laboratory for 3 nights, the first night being an adaptation night. It is possible that Cohen and Cox's (7) subjects were made so anxious by the combination of the first night in the laboratory (29,30) and the presleep manipulation that they reached an asymptote as far as negative affect was concerned and had nowhere to go but in a positive direction. Indeed the finding of Cohen and Cox (7), that a control group which had a positive pre sleep experience exhibited no positive change in affect, lends some credence to this interpretation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep, Dreaming, and Adaptation to a Stressful Intellectual Activity

Koulack

Prévost

1985

Sleep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary: Sixteen male subjects slept in the laboratory for 4 consecutive nights. Night 1 was an adaptation night and night 2 waS a baseline night of uninterrupted sleep. On nights 3 and 4 subjects were asked to complete "intelligence" tests prior to sleep. One half of the subjects attempted to complete difficult versions of "intelligence" tests without knowing that they could not be completed in the time allotted. The other subjects were given easier versions of the same tests that they were able to complete in the time allotted. Night 3 was a night of uninterrupted sleep and night 4 involved REM period awakenings for the purpose of dream collection. Stressful manipulation consisted of telling the subjects before the administration of either set of tests that an average university student should complete most of the items within the allotted time. On night 3 both groups showed a significant increase in sleep latency and a significant decrease in REM density compared to the baseline night. On night 4 subjects in the difficult condition experienced significantly more anxiety in their dreams and somewhat higher levels of incorporation of the presleep material than subjects in the easy condition. Our findings suggest that following a stressful experience uninterrupted sleep has more short term adaptive value than a procedure which enhances dream recall and that subjects who incorporate elements from a presleep stressful event into their remembered dreams show less adaptation on awakening than subjects who do not. Key Words: Adaptation-Pre-and postsleep anxiety-Stress.In recent years a host of studies have focused on the interplay between waking and sleeping lives. Most studies have examined the effects of a large variety of artificially induced and naturally occurring presleep stressful events on the physiology of sleep and/ or dream content and dream affect (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Although the results have not been very consistent from study to study, the observed effects include increases in the latency to sleep onset, decreases in latency to REM sleep, decreases in the percentage of REM sleep, changes in dream affect, and incorporation of stressful elements into dreams.Some of these studies (7,8,12,13) have asked the additional question of how events during sleep affect subsequent waking experience. Greenberg et al. (12) presented a stressful film to three groups of subjects before they went to sleep and again in the morning. During the night one group of subjects was deprived of REM sleep, another was awakened during NREM sleep, and the third group was allowed to sleep without interruption. The REM-

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep, Dreaming, and Adaptation to a Stressful Intellectual Activity

Koulack

Prévost

1985

Sleep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The incorporation of waking experience in dreams has been established by numerous studies finding direct transfer of the laboratory experience to the dreams of subjects (Breger et al, 1971;Dement et al, 1965; 1964b; Hall, 1967;Whltman, Kramer, & Baldridge, 1963;Whitman et al, 1962;Witkin, 1969 …”

Section: Relationship Of Waking Experience and Dreamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…( p. .520) An experimentally otserved example of day residue incorporation in dream3 has been the regular appeara. "YJ.ce of the laboratory situation in subjects' dream reports (e.g., Dement, Kahn, & Roffwarg, 1965;Domhoff & Kamiya, 1964b}. In pilot work, this experimenter found direct references to the experimental conditions in at least one dream of the first night for all five dreamers. Breger, Hunter, and Lane (1971) studied the ef~ect of stressful real-life situations on the dreams of five people awaiting major surgery and six people who were each the focus subject of a psychotherapy group.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of stressful and "neutral" moving images and still images on dreaming

Anderson¹

2000

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A controlled presleep experience was used in an attempt to trace waking experience in dreams. Dream reports were collected in the laboratory from 12 dreamers (half men, half women; half recallers, half nonrecallers), using the electrophysiological method of Dement and Kleitman. Following a baseline night, each dreamer was awakened on three consecutive nights during every REM period (rapid eye movement and Stage 1-ascending EEG pattern). Immediately prior to sleep on Night 3, four of the dreamers viewed an emotionally arousing film, four others viewed a s l ide sequence having the same content as the stressful film, and four others viewed an emotionally "neutral" film. Two independent judges, using Hall and Van de Castle's dream content analysis method and a tally system designed specifically for this study, failed to differentiate dreamers in the three groups on the basis of their dream content. Analyses of variance of dream content scores also failed to provide any evidence for differences among groups, recallers and nonrecallers, or nights. Some differences in dreaming style (e.g., total REM time, recallability) were noted.Limitations of the study and methodological problems were people who revealed secrets from their i:nnermost selves for this study.

show abstract

“…As the presence of stage 4 sleep diminishes throughout the night that of stage REM sleep increases (Dement, 1965). While the exact percentage of time spent in the various stages of sleep during the night vary from subject to subject, the sleep-dream cycle is generally stable from night to night (Dement, 1960;Dement and Klietman, 1957).…”

Section: Rem and Nrem Mentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women commenced the study on the fourth day of the menstrual cycle to control for the increase in REM sleep prior to menstruation (Hartmann, 1966) as well as changes in dream content associated with the menstrual cycle (Swanson and Foulkes, 1968). Night I was an habituation night and data were discarded to control for the atypical dreams characteristic of the first iaboratory night effect (Dement et al, 1965). …”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

A methodological study of the effect of experimentally induced demand characteristics in research on nocturnal dreams.

Stern¹,

Saayman²,

Touyz³

1978

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This experiment tested the hypothesis that demand characteristics may influence dream content. Laboratory and home dreams were collected from 12 subjects allocated to two matched groups. The independent variable, a simple form, was administered to each group and requested that the subjects in the respective groups pay special attention to either the outdoor-nature or urban settings of their nocturnal dreams. The subjects did not consciously construe these forms as representing an attempt to influence their dreams. Nevertheless, in the treatment condition, the dream settings of both groups changed significantly in the predicted direction, as assessed by two quantitative indices. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to laboratory dream research.

show abstract

The Influence of the Laboratory Situation on the Dreams of the Experimental Subject

Cited by 84 publications

References 0 publications

Sleep, Dreaming, and Adaptation to a Stressful Intellectual Activity

Sleep, Dreaming, and Adaptation to a Stressful Intellectual Activity

Effect of stressful and "neutral" moving images and still images on dreaming

A methodological study of the effect of experimentally induced demand characteristics in research on nocturnal dreams.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About