Student Area

Dream Research

Dream research may be done in sleep labs, with researchers waking people up straight out of REM sleep to report their dreams. Or researchers may simply ask people to describe home dreams. Waking people up in sleep labs may result in more "boring" dream reports. (In that situation, a person might remember a dream they would otherwise forget.)

Here are some facts that we know about dreams, based on solid dream research:

• Men and women's dreams are different in predictable ways.

• Pregnancy increases dream recall and affects dream content in predictable ways.

• Psychological stress can lead to nightmares.

• Children's dreams change as they get older. At first, they are like a slide show. Later, they become more like stories.

• Things you sense (hear, feel, smell) during sleep can affect your dreams.

• Your dreams reflect your personality and your waking experiences.

• Some people recall few dreams; others recall many.

• Dreams are forgotten very quickly in the morning, unless you think about them (or write them down) when you first wake up.

Click the link below to go to Richard Catlett Wilkerson's
  Dream Science Page.