Is There a Link Between Frequency of Dreams, Lucid Dreams, and Subjective Sleep Quality?
Frontiers in psychology – January 01, 2020
Source: PubMed
Summary
Lucid dreaming occurs in about 55% of individuals, allowing them to be aware and potentially control their dreams. In a study involving 274 students and 681 participants from the general population, dream experiences like lucid dreaming and awareness were assessed alongside sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. While gender influenced sleep quality predictions, the frequency of dream experiences did not significantly predict sleep quality in either group, highlighting differences between student and general populations regarding dreaming and sleep characteristics.
Abstract
A lucid dream is a dream in which one is conscious of dreaming and can possibly control the dream or passively observe its unfolding. Frequencies of lucid dreaming (LD), dream with awareness, and dream with actual control were previously investigated in a French student population. As a student population usually differs on oneiric and sleep characteristics (such as sleep quality) from the general population, more investigations were needed. Additionally, it is yet unresolved if LD is related to one's overall sleep quality. This study aims at describing and comparing dream experience frequencies (dream, lucid dreams, awareness, and control) and sleep quality assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) among students (n = 274) and in a general population sample (n = 681). It also aims at evaluating if dream experience frequencies can predict sleep quality across these two samples. Predictive models of PSQI score controlling for age and gender were not significant in the student group while they were all marginally predictive for the general population. However, none of these models showed that the frequency of dream experiences could actually help predict the quality of sleep as the significance of the model was carried over only by the gender variable. These results are discussed in line with previous studies on LD frequencies. Several methodological adjustments for future study are proposed.