The Relationship Between Dreams and Subsequent Morning Mood Using Self-Reports and Text Analysis
Remington Mallett1, Claudia Picard-Deland2, Wilfred Pigeon3
1Department of Psychology, University of Texas At Austin, Austin, TX USA.
Affective Science
|September 1, 2022
Summary
Dream mood and content can influence your waking mood. Negative dream themes like death predict worse mornings, while positive themes like leisure predict better ones.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Sleep Science
Background:
- Waking life experiences are often recalled in dreams.
- The impact of dreams on subsequent waking mood is not well understood.
Observation:
- This study investigated the relationship between dream content/mood and waking mood.
- Both subjective self-reports and automated text analysis were employed.
Findings:
- Dream mood and valence significantly correlated with subsequent waking mood.
- Dream content analysis revealed specific themes impacting mood: death/body references linked to worse mood, while leisure/ingestion and plural pronouns linked to better mood.
- First-person singular pronoun usage in dreams also predicted worse morning mood.
Implications:
- Dream experiences significantly contribute to waking emotional states.
- Understanding dream content offers insights into emotional regulation and well-being.
- This research highlights the importance of considering sleep"s subjective experiences for mental health.
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