Dreaming : Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams
Human Sciences Press, Inc., New York City

Dreaming, Volume 7, Number 3, September 1997

 


  
 

CONTENTS

Hypnopompic Imagery and Visual Dream Experience
George Gillespie
Page 187
Available online

Current Concerns and REM-Dreams: A Laboratory Study of Dream Incubation
Roberts Saredi, George W. Baylor, Barbara Meier, and Inge Strauch
Page 195

BRIEF REPORTS

Dreams Following Hurricane Andrew
Daniella David and Thomas A. Mellman
Page 209

The Effects of Music on Dream Content: An Empirical Analysis
Shara Sand and Ross Levin
Page 215

BOOK REVIEWS

The Dream and the Text: Essays on Lierature and Language
edited by Carol Schreier Rupprecht
Reviewed by Susan Luther
Page 221

Dreams and Professional Personhood: The Contexts of Dream Telling and
Dream Interpretation Among American Psychotherapists
Mary-Therese B. Dombeck
Reviewed by Monique Lortie-Lussier
Page 225

Among All These Dreamers: Essays on Dreaming and Modern Society
by Kelly Bulkeley
Reviewed by Stanley Krippner
Page 229

In Memoriam: Alan Moffitt, Ph.D., 1939-1997
Page 231

  


George Gillespie
 Hypnopompic Imagery and Visual Dream Experience
Dreaming, Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 7(3) 187-194, Sep 1997.

Abstract:

Scannable hypnopompic lattice imagery sometimes reaches as far as the eyes can turn. Although these lattice patterns superficially appear to curve around the viewpoint, closer examination reveals that the visual image is flat over the entire scannable area. Moreover the lattice imagery and subjective experience of the head are found to form a spatial whole. Certain events during lucid dreaming demonstrate that visual dream experience, like the hypnopompic lattice imagery, appears within a visual field that is mobile within a larger scannable area. From ordinary dreaming to lucid dreaming to lying awake, there is a continuity of seeing, of scanning, and of the "I" who sees. The concepts of dream seeing, a dream body with eyes, and of an "I" who sees in dreams are examined.

Key words: hypnopompic imagery; lucid dreaming; scanning; visual dream imagery.

Available online



Roberto Saredi, lic.phil.I, George W. Baylor, Ph. D., Barbara Meier, Ph. D. and Inge Strauch, Ph. D.
Current Concerns and REM-Dreams: A Laboratory Study of Dream Incubation
Dreaming, Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 7(3) 195-208, Sep 1997.

Abstract

This study investigated the prevalence of people's waking concerns in their REM-dreams, the form in which such concerns are represented in dreams, and the effects of reflecting on ("incubating") a particular concern prior to sleep. Eight male Ss spent three consecutive nights in the laboratory, with awakenings during the first and each subsequent REM period. At the beginning of the second night, current concerns were assessed using Cox and Klinger's (1988) Motivational Structure Questionnaire. Prior to sleep on incubation nights, Ss formulated and reflected on a question related to their most significant current concerns. Prior to sleep on relaxation nights, Ss were guided through a standard autogenic technique. A total of 105 dream reports was collected from 118 REM awakenings. Dream reports were scored for incorporation using two techniques: a matching procedure and a content analysis of concern categories. The presleep incubation of a specific concern increased the frequency of dream references to that concern category, although this effect was not reliable when dream length was controlled. Incubation also increased the range of different concern categories that were represented each night. Over all, reference to at least one concern category, usually direct (70.7% of references) but often transformed (26.3% of references), occurred in 98.1% of dream reports, with an average of 2.4 categories per report.

Key words: REM dreams; incubation; current concerns; incorporation.


Daniella David, M.D. and Thomas A. Mellman, M.D.
Dreams Following Hurricane Andrew
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 7(3) 209-214, Sep 1997.

Abstract:

Nightmares in which traumatic events are re-experienced reportedly occur frequently in combat veterans with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although disturbing dreams also have been described in other traumatized populations. We studied dream descriptions of subjects exposed to Hurricane Andrew, and assessed whether disturbing dreams, either those that did or those that did not represent the trauma, were associated with PTSD. Subjects who were free of a psychiatric disorder in the 6 months prior to the hurricane (N=59) were recruited from the area most heavily damaged. Structured evaluations of psychiatric morbidity and self-report questionnaires regarding sleep quality and dream content were completed 6-12 months following the hurricane. Of the 59 subjects, 32 described dreams. Only five of the dream reports were threatening or disturbing and featured content related to the hurricane, and all of these were reported by subjects with PTSD. Frequencies of other dream categories did not differ significantly between subjects with and without PTSD. Thus, while event-related nightmares following Hurricane Andrew were not reported very frequently, they appeared to be specific to PTSD.

Key Words: post-traumatic stress disorder; dreams, nightmares.


Shara Sand, Psy.D. and Ross Levin, Ph.D.
The Effects of Music on Dream Content: An Empirical Analysis
Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 7(3) 215-220, Sep 1997.

Abstract:

The present study examined whether listening to music before sleep influenced dream content. Forty-seven subjects, all musicians, volunteered to participate. Twenty subjects completed the 10-day experimental protocol in which, just before sleep, they listened to no music (baseline days), exciting music (three successive days), or calming music (three successive days). A total of 60 dreams were analyzed using the following scales: Hostility and Anxiety (Gottschalk, Winget, & Gleser, 1969), Referential Activity (Bucci & Kabasakalian-McKay, 1992), Primary Process Thinking (Auld, Goldenberg, & Weiss, 1968), and Boundary Disturbance (Lerner, Sugarman, & Barbour, 1985). There was a significant difference between the three musical conditions on the Primary Process Scale, with primary process imagery more common in dreams on nights following either exciting or calming music than on baseline nights. No differences were observed for hostility and anxiety, referential activity, or boundary disturbance.

Key Words: music; dreams.


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