Dreaming and insight
This paper addresses claims that dreams can be a source of personal insight. Whereas there has been anecdotal backing for such claims, there is now tangential support from findings of the facilitative effect of sleep on cognitive insight, and of REM sleep in particular on emotional memory consolidat...
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doaj-d2ba0ade07994b1f9433e01d811662302020-11-24T21:07:22ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782013-12-01410.3389/fpsyg.2013.0097962796Dreaming and insightChristopher L Edwards0Perrine Marie RUBY1Perrine Marie RUBY2Josie E Malinowski3Paul D. Bennett4Mark T Blagrove5Swansea University, UKINSERM U1028, Lyon Neuroscience Research CenterSwansea University, UKUniversity of BedfordshireSwansea University, UKSwansea University, UKThis paper addresses claims that dreams can be a source of personal insight. Whereas there has been anecdotal backing for such claims, there is now tangential support from findings of the facilitative effect of sleep on cognitive insight, and of REM sleep in particular on emotional memory consolidation. Furthermore, the presence in dreams of metaphorical representations of waking life indicates the possibility of novel insight as an emergent feature of such metaphorical mappings. In order to assess whether personal insight can occur as a result of the consideration of dream content, 11 dream group discussion sessions were conducted which followed the Ullman Dream Appreciation technique, one session for each of 11 participants (10 females, 1 male; mean age = 19.2 years). Self-ratings of deepened self-perception and personal gains from participation in the group sessions showed that the Ullman technique is an effective procedure for establishing connections between dream content and recent waking life experiences, although wake life sources were found for only 14% of dream report text. The mean Exploration-Insight score on the Gains from Dream Interpretation questionnaire was very high and comparable to outcomes from the well-established Hill (1996) therapist-led dream interpretation method. This score was associated between-subjects with pre-group positive Attitude Toward Dreams. The need to distinguish ‘aha’ experiences as a result of discovering a waking life source for part of a dream, from ‘aha’ experiences of personal insight as a result of considering dream content, is discussed. Difficulties are described in designing a control condition to which the dream report condition can be compared.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00979/fullPsychotherapySleepREM sleepdreamInsightREM dream |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Christopher L Edwards Perrine Marie RUBY Perrine Marie RUBY Josie E Malinowski Paul D. Bennett Mark T Blagrove |
spellingShingle |
Christopher L Edwards Perrine Marie RUBY Perrine Marie RUBY Josie E Malinowski Paul D. Bennett Mark T Blagrove Dreaming and insight Frontiers in Psychology Psychotherapy Sleep REM sleep dream Insight REM dream |
author_facet |
Christopher L Edwards Perrine Marie RUBY Perrine Marie RUBY Josie E Malinowski Paul D. Bennett Mark T Blagrove |
author_sort |
Christopher L Edwards |
title |
Dreaming and insight |
title_short |
Dreaming and insight |
title_full |
Dreaming and insight |
title_fullStr |
Dreaming and insight |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dreaming and insight |
title_sort |
dreaming and insight |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Psychology |
issn |
1664-1078 |
publishDate |
2013-12-01 |
description |
This paper addresses claims that dreams can be a source of personal insight. Whereas there has been anecdotal backing for such claims, there is now tangential support from findings of the facilitative effect of sleep on cognitive insight, and of REM sleep in particular on emotional memory consolidation. Furthermore, the presence in dreams of metaphorical representations of waking life indicates the possibility of novel insight as an emergent feature of such metaphorical mappings. In order to assess whether personal insight can occur as a result of the consideration of dream content, 11 dream group discussion sessions were conducted which followed the Ullman Dream Appreciation technique, one session for each of 11 participants (10 females, 1 male; mean age = 19.2 years). Self-ratings of deepened self-perception and personal gains from participation in the group sessions showed that the Ullman technique is an effective procedure for establishing connections between dream content and recent waking life experiences, although wake life sources were found for only 14% of dream report text. The mean Exploration-Insight score on the Gains from Dream Interpretation questionnaire was very high and comparable to outcomes from the well-established Hill (1996) therapist-led dream interpretation method. This score was associated between-subjects with pre-group positive Attitude Toward Dreams. The need to distinguish ‘aha’ experiences as a result of discovering a waking life source for part of a dream, from ‘aha’ experiences of personal insight as a result of considering dream content, is discussed. Difficulties are described in designing a control condition to which the dream report condition can be compared. |
topic |
Psychotherapy Sleep REM sleep dream Insight REM dream |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00979/full |
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