Relationship and personality factors predict longitudinal changes in dream content.
John Balch1,2, Rachel Raider3, Chanel Reed3
1Department of Psychology, National University, 9388 Lightwave Ave., San Diego, CA, 92123, USA. jbalch@bu.edu.
Scientific Reports
|May 3, 2025
Summary
Dreams are social, featuring known people and strangers. Personality influences dream characters, and daily interactions predict who appears, with a notable exception for close family, suggesting dreams compensate for their absence.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Dream Research
Background:
- Dreams are known to be social experiences.
- Dream characters often include individuals from the dreamer's waking life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the types of characters appearing in dreams.
- To explore the relationship between personality, daily interactions, and dream character composition.
Main Methods:
- Participants kept dream journals for two weeks.
- Dream reports were analyzed for character types.
- Dream content was compared against participants' social support networks and daily interaction logs.
- Personality measures were collected.
Main Results:
- Most dreams featured both known individuals and strangers.
- Personality traits influenced the likelihood of dreaming about specific character types.
- Daily interactions and relationship variables predicted the appearance of known individuals.
- Increased daily interaction decreased dream appearances of close family members (parents, siblings).
Conclusions:
- Dreams are populated by a diverse cast, including strangers and known individuals.
- Dream character composition is influenced by personality and social dynamics.
- Dreams may serve a compensatory function, maintaining social bonds with absent close relations.
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