Relation of dreams to waking concerns

To test that dreams are influenced by the pre-sleep waking emotional concerns of the sleeper and have an effect on waking adaptation, 20 depressed and 10 control subjects, who were all going through a divorce, were enrolled in a repeated measures study lasting 5 months. A Current Concerns test was administered on three occasions before nights when every REM period was interrupted to record recalled mental content. The degree of waking concern about the ex-spouse correlated significantly with the number of dreams in which the former partner appeared as a dream character. Those who were in remission at the follow-up evaluation had a higher percentage of well-developed dreams than those who remained depressed. Dreams of the former spouse reported by those in remission differed from those who remained depressed in the expression of dream affect and in the within-dream linkage among units of associated memory material. Dreams of the former spouse that are reported by those who are not in remission lack affect and connection to other memories.