Overall, these findings support models of dreaming as an immersive, hyper-associative simulation of waking life, where individual differences and shared reality are dynamically integrated into novel narratives.
At the same time, shared external events modulate dream features. During COVID-19 😷, dream reports showed increased emotional intensity and constraints on action, followed by gradual normalization 💉 over time (we analyzed data collected between 2020 and 2024).
We found that dream content and phenomenology are shaped by the interaction between individual traits and waking experiences.
Traits such as mind-wandering propensity and interest in dreams were associated with dream features such as bizarreness, perceptual immersion, and narrative fragmentation.
At the same time, dream reports showed a distinct narrative organization: more similar to cinematic or story-like descriptions than to waking reports.
Dreams unfold as dynamic, immersive scenes with frequent setting shifts and perceptual richness. 🎬 🍿
Contrary to the common view of dreams as predominantly bizarre, only ~8% contained clearly fantastic elements. 🐉
Most dreams were grounded in everyday life, including social interactions, work, and education, supporting continuity with waking experience. 💼 🎒
New study in Communications Psychology: large-scale NLP analysis of dream reports reveals the structure, content, and determinants of dreaming. 💤💭
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
#sleepscience #sleepresearch #dreamscience #dreamresearch
#sleeppeeps - Spread the word, we're looking for a post-doc to add to our team! careers.umass.edu/jobs/post-do...
New paper from our group: using simultaneous EEG-fMRI, we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying individual NREM sleep slow waves. Our findings suggest that slow waves are not a homogeneous phenomenon and may reflect distinct physiological processes.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...