Findings on Dream Content in Light of the Neurocognitive Theory of Dreaming

This chapter discusses the very solid findings on what people dream about. These based on a rigorous system of quantitative content analysis that has been used all over the world for the past 50 years. These often-replicated findings demonstrate that dream content is for the most part very different from what is claimed based on clinical case studies and popular accounts. The results lead to the conclusion that perhaps as many as 70%–75% of dreams express personal concerns that are continuous with the personal concerns, people think about during drifting waking thought. Dreams therefore have psychological meaning. For example, they reveal how people conceive of their relationships with parents, siblings, and friends during waking life. The chapter also discusses what are called “adventure” dreams, which are based on the imaginative use of people’s general knowledge and have little or nothing to do with their lives and their waking personal concerns. The chapter also emphasizes that it is not easy to collect useful samples of dreams, which is one reason why so much popular information about dreams is exaggerated or wrong.