Evidence for the Preferential Incorporation of Emotional Waking-Life Experiences Into Dreams

摘要

The continuity hypothesis of dreaming states that waking life is continuous with dreams, but many of the factors that have been postulated to influence wake-dream continuity have rarely been studied. The present study investigated whether certain factors-emotional and stressfulness intensity, and certain types of experiences-influence the likelihood of a waking-life experience being incorporated into a dream. Participants (N = 32) kept dream diaries and waking-life experience logs for 14 consecutive days, and waking-life experiences were matched to dream reports. Waking-life experiences that were incorporated into dreams were significantly more emotional, but no more stressful, than those that were not incorporated into dreams. Major daily activities were incorporated significantly less than the combination of personally significant experiences, major concerns, and novel experiences. Results are discussed in terms of dream functionality, particularly in relation to a postulated emotional memory assimilation theory of dream function.