[Dreams of children: content, structure and course]

Foulkes (1999) changed Freud's statement that the interpretation of dreams is the via regia to understanding the unconscious to the effect that studies of children's dreams can accomplish to the understanding of the developing consciousness and personality in early childhood. There is empirical proof of dreams being complex cognitive processes which differentiate increasingly and are not only automatic perception which is found in sleep laboratory studies conducted with children. Dreams develop in predictable stages for a long time. They start with static pictures followed by cinematic scenes which result in the end in active participation in the dream. In this context it seems important whether the sleep-EEG is carried out in laboratory or at home.