Researchers Dig into the Dreams of College Students
How different are the dreams of college students today as compared to 40 yrs back? How are men and women’s dreams different? Is there a particular subject dominating the dreams of college students? Who is having more sex in their dreams? Who is shopping more?
This article is based on the research article recently published by Dr. Raymond Rainville and his colleague. Dr.Raymond passed away this October. He was an expert in the study of sleep and dreams, and wrote a volume entitled “Dreams Across the Life Span”. May his soul rest in peace.
Eighty different dream diaries from students attending a course on sleep and dreams where collected from 1997 to 2007, with each diary consisting at least 20 dream reports (2400 dreams). The dreams were then coded. The codes include: food sharing, potential mate, competition, wedding, shopping, pregnancy, male bonding, multiple self-representation, religion/philosophy, and wild vs. pet animal dreams. Also, each dream was categorized as recognizable or anonymous. Wherein, recognizable dreams included either family or friends, while anonymous dreams included strangers.
Using the data collected along with dream data available from 1966 (HVDC), Dr.Raymond and team performed vigorous comparisons in multiple perspectives. We here present you with some of the vital information extracted from these comparisons.
Differences between recognizable and anonymous dreams
- Anonymous dreams contain more physical aggression, images of death, male characters, outdoors, and animals as compared to recognizable dreams.
- Anonymous dreams are more aggressive than friendly.
- Recognizable dreams contain more indoor imagery, sexuality and friendliness.
- Men have more anonymous dreams while women have more recognizable dreams.
Characteristics of various dreaming content scripts (codes)
Potential Mate
- Females dream about potential mates significantly higher than males [206 vs 120].
- Dreams were rated for five different levels of sexual expression ranging from fantasy to explicit sexuality. Women have 55% of their dreams in the less explicit range while 55% of men have their dreams in the more explicit range.
- Men preferred familiar settings for their sexual dreams while females preferred unfamiliar settings.
- Dreams were also codes of voyeurism and exhibitionism. Women had 26 exhibitionistic dreams and 4 voyeuristic dreams, while men had 21 voyeuristic dreams and 3 exhibitionistic dreams.
Wedding Dreams
- Females dream very often about wedding as compared to men [31 vs 8].
- Female’s wedding dreams mostly included other women in their family.
Shopping Dreams
- Females dream more often about shopping than men [55 vs 30].
- Males had more bodily misfortune in their shopping dreams as compared to non shopping dreams.
- Females had more imagery about their bodies (torso) in their shopping dreams as compared to non shopping dreams.
Pregnancy Dreams
- Females dream very often about pregnancy than males [25 vs 8]
- As this data is from college students, the females dreams about pregnancy included more of family, dead and imaginary, bodily misfortune and torso/anatomy and less in dreamer involved success as compared non pregnancy dreams.
- Most of the male’s pregnancy dreams were of supportive in nature.
Male Bonding
- Exclusive to males
- Male bonding (working in cooperation) dreams involved a lot of fishing, hunting, combat and natural disasters.
- High in aggression, success and striving, low in indoor, familiar settings and sexuality.
Food Sharing
- Food sharing dreams are more friendly, recognizable and very less in aggression and negative emotions.
- Women have significantly higher food sharing dreams [70 vs 48] and thus also lead in the characteristics displayed by food sharing dreams.
- As women dream more about sharing food than men, those dreams are also characterized with “dreamer involved success” and thus, women gain an edge in “dreamer involved success”
Other Dream Scripts
- Competitive dreams characteristics where same across men and women, with men having more competitive dreams.
- Multiple self-representation dreams were of almost equal frequency. However in females, they were mostly of an adult protector and younger self combination while in males, they were mostly of a power persona and a vulnerable self combination.
- Men have more dreams about wild animals while women have more dreams about pet animals
Differences between current dreams and dreams from 1966 (HVDC)
- Differences in dreams between males and females are significantly smaller compared to 1966.
- Men now include more female characters in their dreams than in 1966.
- Females now dream more about sexuality, physical aggression and dreamer involved success relative to male dreamers than the females in 1966.
Interpretations and reasoning from the above information are highly subjective and we hope to hear your interpretations in the comments. Dr.Raymond and team concluded that, biggest difference they see with HVDC is with dreams regarding sex. They attribute this to the reason that, females today have higher level of control over pregnancy (birth control) and this has modified cultural attitudes about sex. They also attribute most of the gender differences to the factor that males show interest towards power hierarchies and aggression displays, while females dreams are influenced by physical attractiveness.
Journal Reference: doi:10.1037/a0017086
Image Credit: Flickr
