Evidence for the preferential incorporation of emotional waking-life experiences into dreams.

Article


Malinowski, J. and Horton, Caroline L. 2014. Evidence for the preferential incorporation of emotional waking-life experiences into dreams. Dreaming. 24 (1), pp. 18-31. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036017
AuthorsMalinowski, J. and Horton, Caroline L.
Abstract

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.

JournalDreaming
Journal citation24 (1), pp. 18-31
ISSN1053-0797
Year2014
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association for International Association for the Study of Dreams
Accepted author manuscript
License
CC BY
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036017
Web address (URL)https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036017
Publication dates
Print01 Mar 2014
Publication process dates
Deposited09 Aug 2017
Copyright informationThis article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
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