Attitudes Towards Dreams: and the Relation of these with Relationship Intimacy and Sleep Quality

Sammanfattning: The present study looked at beliefs/attitudes towards and effects of dreams, in a larger, primarily non-student, adult sample (N=667). On one side, findings supported previous research in that women were more approving towards dreams, they recalled more dreams, read dream literature more often, speculated more frequently about their dreams, and finally shared dreams more often than men. It was also found, that dreams primarily were shared with a partner, and mostly with the purpose of entertainment. In addition, participants generally saw dreams as having a meaningful function, and were especially supportive of the continuity hypothesis, i.e. that waking life events and thoughts are reflected in dream content, and least supportive of “pre-scientific” dream beliefs, e.g. that dreams contain messages from God. When used, dreams primarily served the purpose of gaining personal insight. 8.9% of participants had made “important” actions in their life based on input from dreams. A significant, positive correlation was found between dream sharing frequency in couples and relationship intimacy (r=.24, p<.001). Finally no correlation was found between sleep quality and dream recall, but a positive correlation was found between sleep quality and dream attitude (r=.126, p<.05).