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Even though dreams quite often affect subsequent waking life, the factors which might modulate this type of continuity are poorly understood. Overall, the findings in a sample of 444 participants showed that dream effects on daytime mood were reported by almost all persons to some extent (about 18% of the dreams affected daytime mood) and - as expected - the most influential factors were dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and the intensity of positive and negative dream emotions. In addition, thin boundaries and introversion were related to heightened frequency of dream effects on daytime mood. Longitudinal studies using dream diaries might shed light on the question as to whether and how dreams that affect daytime mood are processed by the waking mind (e.g., sharing the dream, thinking about the meaning of the dream) and whether it is beneficial for the dreamer to initiate such processes, even if the mood was negatively affected in the first place. (Sleep and Hypnosis 2009;11(2):51-57)
Key words: Dream content, daytime mood, dream recall frequency, thin boundaries, introversion
INTRODUCTION
A large variety of studies in dream research focused solely on the effect of waking life on dream content (overviews: (1-3)), even though several studies (4-8) indicate that the reverse relationship, i.e., dreams affecting suhsequent waking life, can also be encountered frequently. Similar to the findings supporting the continuity hypothesis of dreaming (9) which states that waking life is reflected in subsequent dreams, these studies indicate that there is also a continuity between dreams and subsequent waking life. However, factors with might modulate this type of continuity are poorly understood.
The findings that nightmares exert a strong effect on waking life (10) might imply that dreams that are toned especially negatively alfect waking lile. The studies of Wasserman and Ballif (4) and Schredl and Reinhard (11), however, found that the effects of positive and negative emotions on daytime mood are equally pronounced. Wasserman and Ballif (4) and Pagel and Vann (5) found that women reported effects of dreams on daytime mood more often. Since dream recall frequency is also higher in women compared to men (12), these findings might simply be attributed to differences in dream recall. Indeed, in the study of Schredl (7) the significant gender difference in the...