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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 17, 2026

A Naturalistic Setup for Presenting Real People and Live Actions in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Studies

A Naturalistic Setup for Presenting Real People and Live Actions in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Studies

Published on: August 4, 2023

Dream-enacting behaviors in a normal population.

Tore Nielsen¹, Connie Svob, Don Kuiken

¹Dream Nightmare Laboratory, Sacré-Coeur Hospital of Montreal, Montreal, Canada. tore.nielsen@umontreal.ca

|January 1, 2010

Summary

Dream-enacting behaviors are common in healthy individuals and vary with question specificity, not social desirability. These behaviors are independent of other parasomnias and show gender differences in subtypes.

Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Sleep Science

Background:

Dream-enacting behaviors (DE behaviors) are actions performed during sleep.
Understanding their prevalence and characteristics in healthy populations is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine the prevalence and gender distribution of DE behaviors in a normal population.
To assess the independence of DE behaviors from other parasomnias.
To investigate the influence of question wording, social desirability, and personality on prevalence.

Main Methods:

A 3-group questionnaire study was conducted with three undergraduate samples (N=1140).
Questionnaires assessed DE behaviors, social desirability, other parasomnias (somnambulism, somniloquy, nightmares), dream recall, alexithymia, and absorption.

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Question wording varied in specificity across the three groups.

Main Results:

Prevalence of DE behaviors increased significantly with question specificity (35.9% to 98.2%).
Gender differences emerged for specific DE behaviors (e.g., females reported more speaking, males more sexual arousal), independent of other parasomnias.
DE behaviors were generally independent of other parasomnias and dream recall, but moderately related to absorption.

Conclusions:

Dream-enacting behaviors are highly prevalent in healthy individuals and sensitive to how questions are asked.
Specific subtypes of DE behaviors show distinct gender distributions and are independent of other sleep disorders.
Findings highlight the importance of precise measurement in studying dream-related phenomena.