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Dreaming, Vol. 13, No. 4, December 2003 ( C2003)
The Typical Dreams of Canadian University Students
Tore A. Nielsen,1,2,6Antonio L. Zadra,1,3Va l ´erie Simard,1,3S´ebastien Saucier,1,3
Philippe Stenstrom,1,3Carlyle Smith,4and Don Kuiken5
To investigate the dimensional structure of dreams, the Typical Dreams Questionnaire
(TDQ) was administered to 1181 first-year University students in three Canadian cities. A
profile of themes was found that varied little by age, gender or region; however, differences
that were identified could be interpreted as due to developmental milestones, personality
attributes or sociocultural factors. Factor analysis produced a solution consisting of 16
coherent factors that were differentially associated with demographic variables and that
accounted for 51% of the variance. Women loaded primarily on negative factors (failure,
loss of control, snakes-insects), men primarily on positive factors (magic-myth, alien life).
Results support the concept of typical dream themes as consistent over time, region and gen-
der and as reflecting the influence of fundamental dream dimensions that may be influenced
by sociocultural, personality, cognitive or physiological factors.
KEY WORDS: dreaming; typical dreams; sex differences; personality factors.
INTRODUCTION
Both lay and scientific theories about the meaning of dreams attempt to explain reg-
ularities in dream content over time, gender, regions or cultures. Common dream “dictio-
naries,” for example, suppose that recurrent symbols portend similar fortunes regardless
of age or other demographics. Some popular writers (Garfield, 2001) go so far as to pro-
pose that a number of dream types are universal. In the scientific and clinical domains,
global taxonomies of dream types have been proposed (Hunt, 1989) as has a fundamental
repetition dimension that is thought to reflect inter-individual consistencies in emotional
concerns (Domhoff, 1996). Nevertheless, despite many such undertakings there still exists
no widely-accepted, empirically-based typology of dreams.
One avenue of research that has made some progress in identifying and character-
izing basic dream dimensions concerns typical dreams. Typical dreams are recurrent in
1Sleep Research Center, Hˆopital du Sacr´e-Coeur de Montr´eal, Qu´ebec.
2Department of Psychiatry, Universit´e de Montr´eal, Qu´ebec.
3Department of Psychology, Universit´e de Montr´eal, Qu´ebec.
4Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.
5Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.
6Correspondence should be direced to Tore A. Nielsen, Dream & Nightmare Laboratory, Hˆopital du Sacr´e-Cœur
de Montr´eal, 5400 boul. Gouin Ouest, Montr´eal, Qu ´ebec, Canada; e-mail: tore.nielsen@umontreal.ca.
211
1053-0797/03/1200-0211/1 C
2003 Association for the Study of Dreams
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212 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
nature, demonstrate little variation in content (Ward, Beck, & Rascoe, 1961) and are
shared by many persons (Griffith, Miyagi, & Tago, 1958). Freud (1955, p. 519) identi-
fied typical dreams as having high consistency, high prevalence and a seeming lack of
associational sources—a pattern that he attributed to their origin in memories of common,
early childhood experiences. For Freud, typical dreams about falling and flying stemmed
from shared early experiences of being tossed in the air or swung about by adults, dreams
of being naked in public from early experiences of undressing in front of strangers, and
so on.
Many subsequent psychoanalytic authors expanded upon Freud’s ideas by examin-
ing the nature and significance of specific typical themes such as finding money, los-
ing teeth or flying through the air (Saul, 1966; Saul & Curtis, 1967; Feldman, 1955;
Darlington, 1942; Griffith, 1951). Such efforts have continued sporadically (Kafka, 1979;
Renik, 1981; Andresen, 1985; Myers, 1989). Other investigators have surveyed the in-
cidence and prevalence of multiple typical themes among large samples. The dreams of
normal individuals (Gahagan, 1936; Griffith et al., 1958) and psychiatric patients (Ward
et al., 1961) have been studied with this method. Griffith, et al., for instance, demonstrated
striking similarities among Japanese and American respondents in the prevalence of 34 typ-
ical dream themes. Cross-cultural differences that were observed in this work, such as
more frequent dreams of fire and fewer dreams of nudity among Japanese respondents,
could be interpreted in the context of known differences between Japanese and American
cultures.
These early efforts provide a methodological point of departure for the present study
of dimensional structure in dreams. The prior work has provided preliminary evidence
for the existence of some types of dreams, although their diversity, prevalence and fre-
quency, their relationships with personality and sociocultural factors and, ultimately, their
meaning for individuals or groups still remain largely unknown. Although there exists a
comprehensive system for coding and quantifying the content of dreams (Hall & Van de
Castle, 1966; Domhoff, 1996), this system deals primarily with the frequency and de-
scriptive attributes of different types of characters, objects and settings and not with a
dream’s thematic, dimensional or typical nature. Other systems (see Winget & Kramer,
1979 for review) deal with very circumscribed attributes or qualities of dream content
that are frequently dictated by a particular cognitive, developmental or personality the-
ory, e.g., ego functioning, repression, hostility, primitivity or bizarreness. Home journal
methods might be useful for assessing typical themes, but administration and scoring
of such journals is extremely resource-consuming when large numbers of participants
must be assessed. Laboratory collection methods are even more limited in this respect.
Inventories such as the TDQ, on the other hand, facilitate the assessment of multiple
dream types among large samples and are well-suited for quantifying the lifetime preva-
lence of personally important dream themes, whether these are frequent or infrequent in
occurrence.
Our primary goal in the present work was therefore to extend and elaborate previous
avenues of investigation that have specifically addressed typical dreams by validating a
questionnaire on typical dreams and examining its dimensional structure. We undertook a
study of some of the psychometric properties and demographic correlates of the Typical
Dreams Questionnaire (TDQ) and determined whether multivariate analyses of it support
the existence of basic dream types or dimensions.
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Typical Dreams of Students 213
THE TYPICAL DREAMS QUESTIONNAIRE
We replicated and extended Griffith, et al.’s (1958) questionnaire approach to the
study of typical dreams. The TDQ appears in Appendix 1 and all modifications are listed
in Table 1, Column 2. The TDQ employs 28 items taken without modification from the
34 originally used by Griffith et al. (1958). We dropped two items (being hanged by the
neck, being buried alive) because these were only rarely endorsed in the prior study. Three
other items (falling, falling with fear, falling without fear) were combined into a single item
termed falling. The most prevalent of Griffith et al.’s themes (being attacked or pursued)was
separated to distinguish pursuit (“being chased and attacked but not physically injured”)
from physical assault (“being physically attacked (e.g., beaten, shot, raped)”). An additional
24 items (i.e., items 20–27, 29, 30, 33, 41, 44–55) were “new”typical themes whose
prevalence had never been investigated but which we have frequently observed in home
journal studies of dream content. Both English and French versions of the TDQ were
developed (http://www.crhsc.umontreal.ca/dreams/index.html) and translations have been
made into German (Schredl, Ciric, & G¨otz, 2001) and Japanese (Nielsen, Zadra, & Fukuda,
1999a).
We have reported preliminary characteristics of the TDQ with both normal (Zadra &
Nielsen, 1999; Zadra & Nielsen, 1997) and clinical (Nielsen, Zadra, Germain, & Montplaisir,
1998a; Nielsen, Zadra, Germain, & Montplaisir, 1998b) samples. We found high consisten-
cies among student samples (Zadra et al., 1999), among sleep-disordered patients (Nielsen
et al., 1998a; Nielsen, Zadra, Germain, & Montplaisir, 1999b), and between contempo-
rary students and students from Griffith, et al.’s study (Zadra et al., 1997). Some of these
preliminary findings are elaborated in the present work.
PARTICIPANTS
Participants were students enrolled in Introductory Psychology courses at one of
three major Canadian Universities. Of the 1348 participants who completed the TDQ, 341
were from McGill University, 388 from Trent University, and 619 from the
University of Alberta. In the Alberta sample, 167 students (12.4%) did not specify their
gender; they were found to be younger than both the men (t=2.92, p=.004) and the
women (t=1.62, p=.105) in the remaining sample and were thus dropped from sub-
sequent analyses. For the remaining 1181 participants, 28.9% were men and 71.1% were
women.
Of these participants, a total of 1171 (99.2%) specified their age (M=19.8±3.9 yrs).
A2×3 ANOVA with Gender (Men, Women) and Region (McGill, Trent, Alberta) as
independent variables and age as the dependent variable revealed a main effect for Re-
gion (F1165 =8.35, p<.0003) such that Alberta participants were on average about one
year younger (19.2±3.24) than those from McGill (20.3±4.49) and Trent (20.1±3.87;
Scheff´et-test, both p<.005). This difference is due, in part, to the fact that Alberta students
typically started University directly after Grade 12 whereas McGill and Trent students typi-
cally started after Grade 13 and, in part, to the fact that there were fewer mature students in the
Alberta sample (%students > 25 yrs =3.8) than in the McGill (5.9%) or Trent (6.8%) sam-
ples. There was no difference in age between women (19.7±3.970) and men (20.1±3.60;
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214 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
F1165 =2.63, p=.105), no Gender ×Region interaction for age (F1165 =0.66, p=.520),
and no Gender differences in age within regions (McGill: t=1.55, p=.123; Trent:
t=0.22, p=.829; Alberta: t=0.93, p=.353).
QUESTIONNAIRE ADMINISTRATION
Questionnaires were administered to English-speaking students during regular course
hours. At McGill, questionnaires were given during three separate courses over 3 consec-
utive sessions. Consistency across these 3 samples was very high (Zadra et al., 1999) and
justified combining them into a single sample. Students at the Trent and Alberta sites com-
pleted the questionnaires in multiple sections of a single course. Alberta students completed
several additional questionnaires about personality attributes (not reported here) and they
received partial course credit for participation. Trent and McGill students received no such
credit.
The TDQ is one page in length and requests first that participants write their name,
age, sex and occupation, followed by 55 numbered items with accompanying check boxes.
Participants are then asked to respond to questions about which theme was most frequent,
which occurred earliest in life, and the number of dreams and nightmares recalled in a
typical month. The Alberta cohort was asked to specify which theme was most frequent
and which was most important.
Additionally, two measures were calculated for exploratory purposes: 1) a measure of
typical theme diversity, or Divers55 (total #items/55); and 2) a sleep paralysis (SP) subscale
(sum of items 4, 15, 29, 39 and 44) which consisted of those items characterizing the fear,
inhibition and sense of presence attributes of SP experiences (Fukuda, Ogilvie, & Takeuchi,
1998; Powell & Nielsen, 1998; Nielsen & Zadra, 2000b).
STATISTICAL ANALYSES
To adjust for the large number of comparisons in assessing prevalence and ques-
tionnaire consistency over gender, region and age, while maintaining a relatively liberal
criterion for detecting Type I errors, a significance probability value of p<0.005 (trends:
0.005 <p<0.01) was applied within each set of comparisons. To maintain a more con-
servative criterion for detecting Type I errors in assessing consistency over time, a value
of p<0.01 (trends: 0.05 <p<0.01) was applied. To control for Type I errors in the
assessment of additional variables and discriminant validity of the factor solution, a value
of p<0.01 (trends: 0.05 <p<0.01) was used for each variable.
RESULTS
ANALYSIS 1: PREVALENCE OF TDQ ITEMS
Consistencies in Prevalence Profiles
Spearman rho coefficients were calculated between the ranked ordered sets of 55 TDQ
prevalence scores for each of the 3 regions. These were uniformly high and significant
(mean rho over 3 regions =0.954, range =0.948 −0.965, p<.000001 for all). High
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Typical Dreams of Students 215
coefficients indicate that the rank-orderings of item prevalence varied little from sample to
sample. Coefficients were also high for men and women considered separately, although
they were higher for women (mean rho =.958) than for men (mean rho =.876).
A2×3 ANOVA with Gender (Men, Women) and Region (McGill, Trent, Alberta) as
independent variables and Divers55 as dependent measure indicated that theme diversity
did not differ as a function of Gender (F1175 =0.004, p=.952) or Region (F1175 =0.139,
p=.871); specifically, overall mean diversity was 16.38 ±8.14 items (mode: 13; median:
15; range 0–50), and was similar for women (16.40 ±7.77) and men (16.33 ±8.99), and
for the McGill (16.66 ±8.69), Trent (16.75 ±8.26) and Alberta (15.91 ±7.43) samples.
Prevalence of Typical Themes by Gender, Time, Region and Age
Gender
As shown in Figure 1, the two most prevalent themes were 1-being chased or pursued,
but not physically injured (81.5%) and 32-sexual experiences (76.5%). The former was the
most prevalent item for women (83.1% vs. 77.7% for men; p<.031) whereas the latter
was the most prevalent item for men (85.0% vs. 73.0% for women; p<.00001). In total,
women had higher prevalences than men (p<.005) for 8 items (4, 9, 24, 30, 31, 36, 38,
55); men had higher prevalences than women (p<.005) for 10 items (10, 11, 16, 17, 20,
32, 42, 46, 47, 48). The affective nature of these items was clearly different for the two
sexes. For those characterizing men, they were predominantly positive (6/10 or 60.0%); for
women they were predominantly negative (7/8 or 87.5%). Reliability of 4 of the 18 gender
differences (Items 46–48, 55) is in doubt because the prevalences of the items were among
the lowest of the questionnaire, i.e., less than 13% each.
Time
To compare and contrast our results with those from Griffith et al.’s 1958 sample, we
calculated Spearman rho coefficients between the 28 items in their Table 1 that could be
directly compared with our TDQ items. The mean rho was .794. As in our inter-sample
comparisons, the mean rho for women (.770) was higher than that for men (.682).
We also calculated chi-squares by gender and time for prevalence distributions from
our results and those of Griffith et al. Of the 9 gender differences (p<.05) and 8 trends
(p<.10) they found, we replicated (at p<.01) eight (4, 9, 10, 17, 31, 32, 36, 42), we
replicated with trends ( p<.05) three (7, 14, 34) and we failed to replicate six (5, 13,
18, 19, 35, 37). The latter item (37) was the only one out of 17 for which the gender
distribution we observed was opposite to that reported by Griffith et al. In addition, three
gender differences that we identified (11, 16, 38) were not present in Griffith, et al.’s results.
Eight of our observed gender differences were for new items (20, 24, 30, 41, 46-48, 55) that
had not been evaluated by Griffith, et al.
When we split Griffith et al.’s most prevalent item (being attacked or pursued) into two
distinct items (items 1 and 2), chase/pursuit with and without physical injury, the former
item was just over half as prevalent (42.4%; rank: 12th) as the latter item (81.5%; rank: 1st),
and did not differ by gender, whereas the latter item did show a slight gender difference
(p=.03). When we combined our Items 1 and 2 to reproduce Griffith et al.’s original item
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216 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
Fig. 1. Percent of participants reporting presence of each of 55 TDQ themes (white bars) and percent reporting
each theme as their earliest remembered (black bars). Participants were free to endorse the presence of any
of the 55 themes, but could specify only one as their earliest. Prevalence and age of recall are related for only
some themes. Item 1, Chase/pursuit without injury was both most prevalent (81.5%) and most often selected
as the earliest (21.6%). Similarly, Item 12, Falling, was third most prevalent (73.8%) and second most often
selected as earliest (16.8%). In contrast, item 32, Sexual experiences, was second most prevalent (76.5%) but
only rarely selected as earliest (1.3% or 20th). Numbers preceding themes refer to their order of appearance
in the questionnaire.
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Typical Dreams of Students 217
Table 1. Prevalence estimates by gender (including comparisons with 1958 sample) and age for the total sample
Item TDQ Total Men Women P 18−19+P
Rank typeaitem prevalence prevalence prevalence gender Grifbprevalence prevalence age
1 m 1 chased or pursued, not physically injured 81.5 77.7 83.1 0.031 82.8 80.8 0.400
2 o 32 sexual experiences 76.5 85.0 73.0 0.00001∗m 68.8 80.3 0.0005
3 m 12 falling 73.8 73.0 74.0 0.716 74.6 73.4 0.661
4 o 31 school, teachers, studying 67.1 56.9 71.3 0.00000∗w 68.3 67.0 0.648
5 o 6 arriving too late, e.g., missing a train 59.5 54.5 61.5 0.026 60.1 59.0 0.707
6 o 37 being on the verge of falling 57.7 53.4 59.5 0.052†m 59.1 57.3 0.547
7 o 3 trying again and again to do something 53.5 54.5 53.1 0.651 55.6 52.9 0.370
8 o 36 a person now alive as dead 54.1 43.1 58.6 0.00000∗w 56.6 52.7 0.206
9o11flying or soaring through the air 48.3 58.1 44.4 0.00002 51.1 46.9 0.168
10 n 29 vividly sensing ...a presence in the room 48.3 44.3 49.9 0.081 —49.9 47.5 0.446
11 o 38 failing an examination 45.0 37.2 48.1 0.001 51.1 41.7 0.002
12 m 2 physically attacked (beaten, stabbed, raped) 42.4 39.9 43.5 0.261 45.4 41.2 0.166
13 o 4 being frozen with fright 40.7 32.3 44.2 0.0002†w 36.4 43.1 0.027
14 o 35 a person now dead as alive 38.4 36.7 39.0 0.444∗w 32.9 41.3 0.005
15 n 50 being a child again 36.7 33.1 38.2 0.101 —35.2 37.9 0.353
16 n 27 being killed 34.5 35.8 34.0 0.571 —36.2 33.8 0.414
17 n 24 insects or spiders 33.8 25.5 37.1 0.0001 —39.2 30.8 0.004
18 o 7 swimming 34.3 29.0 36.4 0.015†w 35.9 33.8 0.464
19 o 14 being nude 32.6 37.5 30.6 0.021†m 30.2 33.6 0.231
20 o 13 being inappropriately dressed 32.5 30.8 33.2 0.421∗w 34.2 31.3 0.320
21 n 53 discovering a new room at home 32.3 30.8 33.0 0.467 —31.2 33.0 0.529
22 n 33 losing control of a vehicle 32.0 29.3 33.1 0.208 —33.9 31.3 0.363
23 o 5 eating delicious foods 30.7 28.7 31.4 0.364†w 34.2 28.4 0.043
24 n 44 being half awake and paralyzed in bed 27.2 25.2 28.0 0.335 —24.2 28.8 0.090
25 o 10 finding money 25.7 34.0 22.3 0.00003†m 26.2 25.1 0.676
26 o 34 fire 27.3 22.6 29.3 0.019∗w 28.4 27.0 0.607
27 n 20 having magical powers (other than flying... ) 24.9 39.3 19.0 0.00000 —25.4 24.3 0.665
28 o 16 having superior knowledge or mental ability 24.4 36.4 19.5 0.00000 25.4 23.8 0.527
29 o 39 being smothered, unable to breathe 24.2 21.1 25.5 0.113 24.7 23.8 0.726
30 o 42 killing someone 24.3 36.1 19.5 0.00000∗m 25.2 24.0 0.661
31 o 28 seeing yourself as dead 23.8 22.6 24.3 0.533 25.4 23.0 0.350
32 o 8 being locked up 24.0 22.9 24.5 0.548 25.9 23.0 0.262
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Table 1. (Continued )
Item TDQ Total Men Women P 18−19+P
Rank typeaitem prevalence prevalence prevalence gender Grifbprevalence prevalence age
33 n 45 seeing a face very close to you 23.5 22.6 23.8 0.652 —20.7 25.1 0.095
34 o 9 snakes 22.1 16.4 24.4 0.003†w 22.7 21.8 0.732
35 o 15 being tied, unable to move 21.4 19.4 22.3 0.270 19.0 22.7 0.135
36 n 22 tornadoes or strong winds 17.7 17.3 17.9 0.821 —19.5 16.6 0.228
37 n 30 unable to find or embarrassed about ...toilette 19.2 13.8 21.4 0.003 —18.2 19.6 0.562
38 o 18 your teeth falling out/losing your teeth 18.8 16.7 19.6 0.243 ∗w 19.2 18.6 0.793
39 o 43 lunatics or insane people 20.0 20.2 19.9 0.890 20.9 19.6 0.588
40 n 41 being at a movie 16.9 21.4 15.1 0.009 —18.5 16.0 0.282
41 o 17 creatures, part animal, part human 16.8 22.3 14.5 0.001†m 15.7 17.5 0.430
42 o 40 wild, violent beasts 15.9 19.6 14.4 0.026 18.7 14.7 0.075
43 o 19 seeing yourself in a mirror 15.9 15.8 16.0 0.960∗w 17.2 15.2 0.371
44 n 51 seeing an angel 12.4 11.7 12.7 0.634 —9.5 13.8 0.034
45 n 48 traveling to another planet or...universe 12.3 18.2 9.9 0.00009 —13.7 11.6 0.286
46 n 21 floods or tidal waves 12.4 12.9 12.1 0.719 —16.2 10.5 0.005
47 n 54 seeing a flying object crash (e.g., airplane) 12.8 15.8 11.5 0.046 —13.0 12.9 0.957
48 n 25 being a member of the opposite sex 11.9 9.4 12.9 0.094 —11.5 11.8 0.861
49 n 52 encountering God in some form 11.2 13.2 10.4 0.160 —10.7 11.6 0.668
50 n 23 earthquakes 10.8 12.6 10.0 0.189 —11.5 10.5 0.619
51 n 47 seeing extra-terrestrials 9.5 16.4 6.7 0.00000 —9.2 9.5 0.888
52 n 49 being an animal 8.0 11.1 6.8 0.013 —8.2 7.7 0.732
53 n 46 seeing a UFO 7.7 12.0 6.0 0.0004 —8.2 7.4 0.614
54 n 55 someone having an abortion 5.1 1.8 6.4 0.001 —5.2 4.9 0.823
55 n 26 being an object (e.g., tree or rock) 3.5 5.0 2.9 0.070 —4.0 3.1 0.435
aItem type: o =original item from Griffith, et al.; m =item modified from Griffith, et al.; n =new TDQ item.
bGrif: Griffith, et al., 1958 report: ∗gender difference ( p<.05); †gender trend (p<.10); m =%male higher; w =%women higher; —new item.
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Typical Dreams of Students 219
(i.e., participants endorsed Items 1 or 2 or both), prevalence was 86.6% overall and slightly
higher for women (87.7%) than for men (83.9%; Pearson chi-square for gender =3.13,
p=.077). Corresponding figures from Griffith et al. were 77.2% (total), 77.2% (women)
and 76.6% (men).
Region
One of the sample regions was either higher (+)orlower(−) in prevalence than were
the other two regions on 7 themes (p<.005); 2 trends ( p<.01) were also noted. Seven
of these 9 themes (77.8%) distinguished Trent students from the other two groups: items
3−,29+,34+,39+,51+,52+,38−. One theme (11.1%; Item 44+) distinguished McGill
students from the others, and one theme (11.1%; Item 10+) distinguished Alberta students.
Further, 2 of the themes (Items 10, 34) are qualified by a Gender X Region interaction, i.e.,
more Alberta men than women reported 10-finding money and fewer Trent men than women
reported 34-fire. The combination of Items 1 and 2 (replicating Griffith et al.’sattack/pursuit
theme) showed no differences for regions.
Age
Frequency distributions by age were examined for the 1171 participants (99.2%) who
responded to this variable. The sample could be conveniently split at a point that provided
2 relatively equally sized groups: 18 and younger (N=402) vs. 19 and older (N=769).
The former group contained participants aged 16–18 while the latter contained participants
aged 19–60, with 42 (5.5%) exceeding 2 SD and 32 (4.2%) exceeding 3 SD of the mean
age for the total sample (19.8±3.9). Five themes significantly ( p<.01) discriminated
the two age groups (see Table I). Two were more prevalent in older participants: 32-sexual
experiences, and 35-a person now dead as alive. Three were more prevalent in younger
participants: 38-failing an examination,24-insects or spiders, and 21-floods or tidal waves.
The combination of Items 1 and 2 (attack/pursuit) was slightly more prevalent in younger
(89.5%) than in older (85.1%) participants (chi-square =4.52, p=.033).
Additional Variables
Of the 7 additional variables examined, 3 nominal variables (earliest theme, most
frequent theme, most important theme) were assessed with simple frequency distributions,
and 4 continuous variables (age of earliest theme, typical recall of dreams, typical recall of
nightmares, sleep paralysis subscale) were evaluated for gender and regional differences
in separate 2 ×3 ANOVAs in which Gender (Men, Women) and Region (McGill, Trent,
Alberta) were independent variables. Square root transformations were applied to the dream
and nightmare recall variables to correct their skewed distributions.
Earliest Theme
A total of 930 participants (78.7%) responded to the question concerning which of the
55 themes occurred earliest in life. Three themes clearly stood out as being reported by 2 to
5 times more participants than the others. These were 1-chased or pursued but not injured,
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Fig. 2. Frequency distribution of responses (N=888) to question about partici-
pant’s age when earliest TDQ theme was recalled. A substantial proportion (13.3%)
estimated their earliest recall to occur at age 4 or younger. However, the majority
occur at ages 5–6 (32.5%), 7–8 (26.8%) and 9–10 (16.6%).
12-falling, and 11-flying or soaring. These items were also among the 10 most prevalent
themes overall and among those that participants evaluated to be their most frequently
occurring theme (see below).
Age of Earliest Theme
A total of 888 participants (75.2%) responded to the item requesting age at which their
earliest theme was first recalled. The distribution of ages for all earliest themes combined
appears in Figure 2. The overall mean was relatively young, 7.3±3.08 years. Mean ages
for specific themes did not differ substantially from this value for the 7 most prevalent early
themes (1, 12, 11, 3, 24, 9, 34). However, some other themes were first recalled only much
later in life, i.e., in late childhood or early adolescence; these included 32-sexual experiences
(13.1±5.02 years), 35-a person now dead as alive (12.4±4.31 years); 18-teeth falling out
(9.7±3.15 years) and 10-finding money (9.3±2.22 years). The 2 ×3 ANOVA produced
no significant main effects or interactions for Gender and Region for this variable.
Typical Recall of Dreams
Overall, 960 participants (81.3%) responded to a question about the recall of dreams
in a typical month. The average number of recalled dreams was 9.60 ±10.16, or about
1 every 3 days. A very marginal Gender ×Region interaction (F2,954 =2.76, p=.064)
indicated that McGill men estimated recalling fewer dreams per month (6.78 ±5.24) than
did either McGill women (10.24 ±9.20) or any group from the other regions. However,
the fact that the group of McGill men bore the smallest N of the six cells in this analysis
(N=63) raises some doubt upon whether the result is representative. Apart from this
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Typical Dreams of Students 221
trend, there was also a very marginal trend for Gender (F1,954 =3.20, p=.074), women
reported recalling slightly more dreams in a typical month (9.79 ±9.72) than did men
(9.12 ±11.20).
Typical Recall of Nightmares
Overall, 936 participants (79.3%) responded to a question about the recall of nightmares
in a typical month. The average number of recalled nightmares was 1.97 ±3.40 or almost
1 every two weeks. A significant main effect for Gender (F1,930 =19.23, p=.00001)
indicated that women estimated recalling more nightmares per month (2.17 ±3.58) than
did men (1.48 ±2.85).
Sleep Paralysis (SP) Subscale
A2×3 ANOVA with the SP subscale score as dependent measure revealed a signif-
icant main effect for Gender (F1,1175 =10.14, p=.001) in which women scored higher
(1.70 ±1.36) than did men (1.42 ±1.36).
Most Frequent and Most Important Themes
Participants from Alberta were asked two additional, exploratory questions about
theme frequency and importance. There was a general, although by no means exact, corre-
spondence between the prevalence rank order of the 55 themes and participants’estimates
of theme frequency, i.e., the more prevalent themes were also the most frequent. Of partic-
ular note is that Item 1-being chased or pursued but not physically injured, was the most
frequent of the 55 themes in addition to being the most prevalent.
On the other hand, a clear relationship between prevalence and frequency on the one
hand and personal importance of the theme on the other was less apparent. Item 1, which
is both prevalent and frequent, was, in fact, also rated as most personally important by a
relatively large proportion of the participants (9.1%). However, several other themes are
less prevalent and/or frequent yet nevertheless rated by a sizeable number of participants
as most personally important. Items 35-a person now dead as alive and 36-a person now
alive as dead illustrate this point in that both have low frequencies but were rated by many
participants as being most personally important (7.6% and 9.7% respectively).
ANALYSIS 2: FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE TDQ
Principal Components
Responses to TDQ Items 1 to 55 for the entire sample were subjected to Principal
Components Factor Analysis with Varimax rotation and Kaiser normalization. A 16-factor
solution included all 55 items and accounted for 50.6% of the variance (see Table 2). All
16 factors were readily interpretable, in some cases even for items with factor loadings as
low as .30. Internal consistency of items in each factor reflected by Armor’s (1974) theta
coefficient varied from a high for Factor 1 (1.032) to a low for Factor 16 (0.037). Factors
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Table 2. Factors and factor loadings for principle components analysis (Varimax rotation) of total sample (N =1181)
TDQ Item TDQaPrevbFactor Name fac1 fac2 fac3 fac4 fac5 fac6 fac7 fac8 fac9 fac10 fac11 fac12 fac13 fac14 fac15 fac16
27. being killed 27 34.5 1 Death-murder 0.725 0.129 0.028 0.084 −0.001 0.008 0.013 −0.006 −0.050 0.089 0.107 0.090 0.131 0.062 0.075 0.028
28. seeing yourself as dead 28 23.8 1 Death-murder 0.642 0.034 0.024 −0.011 −0.033 0.054 0.090 0.088 0.001 0.118 0.157 0.136 0.182 −0.126 −0.051 −0.036
2. physically attacked (beaten ...raped) 2 42.4 1 Death-murder 0.626 0.131 −0.011 0.032 0.139 0.053 0.041 0.029 0.152 −0.011 0.000 −0.039 0.055 0.215 −0.024 −0.005
36. a person now alive as dead 36 54.1 1 Death-murder 0.457 −0.033 0.148 0.137 0.081 0.205 0.008 0.184 0.130 −0.211 0.019 0.179 −0.028 −0.082 0.071 0.108
42. killing someone 42 24.3 1 Death-murder 0.420 0.051 0.109 0.138 0.240 0.001 0.166 0.073 0.076 0.338 −0.083 −0.157 −0.071 −0.019 0.069 −0.119
43. lunatics or insane people 43 20.0 1 Death-murder 0.301 0.104 −0.033 0.014 0.029 0.203 0.294 0.024 0.272 0.208 −0.035 −0.062 −0.012 0.004 0.135 −0.048
22. tornadoes or strong winds 22 17.7 2 Disaster 0.001 0.708 0.076 0.124 0.078 0.076 0.020 0.021 0.058 0.035 0.009 0.030 0.087 0.076 0.023 −0.050
23. earthquakes 23 10.8 2 Disaster 0.113 0.704 0.064 0.030 0.000 0.068 −0.034 0.083 0.012 0.081 0.137 0.087 0.006 0.014 −0.104 0.000
21. floods or tidal waves 21 12.4 2 Disaster 0.008 0.576 0.135 −0.076 0.094 0.043 0.154 −0.065 0.052 −0.083 0.051 −0.076 −0.059 −0.122 0.116 0.241
34. fire 34 27.3 2 Disaster 0.262 0.490 0.123 0.061 −0.072 −0.053 0.086 0.057 0.110 0.040 −0.062 0.041 0.194 0.182 0.105 −0.056
54. seeing a flying object crash 54 12.8 2 Disaster 0.186 0.397 0.053 0.272 0.070 0.030 0.008 0.208 0.026 0.085 0.104 0.092 0.085 −0.221 0.145 −0.091
5. eating delicious foods 5 30.7 3 Positive themes 0.002 0.066 0.606 0.027 0.248 −0.044 −0.028 0.113 0.095 0.131 0.011 0.078 −0.015 0.009 0.045 0.058
41. being at a movie 41 16.9 3 Positive themes 0.012 0.098 0.532 0.149 −0.054 0.079 0.092 0.064 0.030 0.110 0.068 0.145 0.017 −0.075 0.112 −0.049
10. finding money 10 25.7 3 Positive themes 0.045 0.115 0.516 0.119 0.133 0.041 0.002 0.024 −0.020 0.273 −0.012 0.137 0.115 −0.069 −0.280 0.012
19. seeing yourself in a mirror 19 15.9 3 Positive themes 0.098 0.133 0.410 0.004 0.007 0.243 0.111 −0.074 −0.011 0.139 0.037 0.008 0.071 0.156 0.007 −0.219
7. swimming 7 34.3 3 Positive themes 0.115 0.141 0.404 0.070 0.085 −0.053 0.041 0.072 0.202 −0.022 −0.054 −0.118 0.096 0.134 0.282 0.368
50. being a child again 50 36.7 3 Positive themes 0.024 0.087 0.402 −0.016 −0.017 0.090 0.217 0.112 0.026 0.013 0.201 0.131 0.061 −0.072 0.313 −0.037
35. a person now dead as alive 35 38.4 3 Positive themes 0.198 −0.043 0.314 0.139 0.084 0.226 −0.012 −0.138 0.149 −0.264 0.304 −0.030 0.035 0.079 −0.030 0.205
46. seeing a UFO 46 7.7 4 Alien life 0.069 0.125 0.095 0.825 0.020 0.022 0.061 0.045 0.015 −0.010 0.011 0.033 0.015 0.055 0.010 0.001
47. seeing extra-terrestrials 47 9.5 4 Alien life 0.094 0.011 0.113 0.803 0.011 0.032 0.123 −0.020 0.068 0.112 0.043 −0.057 0.027 0.110 0.059 0.014
48. traveling to another planet 48 12.3 4 Alien life 0.025 0.126 0.029 0.385 0.048 0.136 0.161 0.024 0.051 0.339 0.145 0.110 −0.021 −0.185 0.123 0.078
13. inappropriately dressed 13 32.5 5 Nudity-sex 0.076 −0.018 0.035 0.015 0.681 −0.019 0.057 −0.022 0.050 0.051 0.079 0.264 0.025 0.109 0.091 0.057
14. being nude 14 32.6 5 Nudity-sex 0.067 0.105 0.073 0.083 0.673 0.043 0.134 0.052 0.011 0.017 0.012 0.070 0.023 0.157 −0.021 0.000
30. unable to find ...toilette 30 19.2 5 Nudity-sex 0.046 0.067 0.201 −0.124 0.486 0.269 −0.029 0.000 −0.095 −0.124 −0.004 0.021 0.141 −0.204 0.112 0.023
32. sexual experiences 32 76.5 5 Nudity-sex 0.210 0.023 0.147 0.089 0.335 0.124 0.028 0.033 0.102 0.067 0.020 −0.195 −0.257 0.332 −0.036 −0.171
44. half awake and paralyzed 44 27.2 6 Paralysis-presence 0.035 0.023 −0.021 −0.001 0.164 0.624 −0.023 0.063 0.045 0.045 −0.044 0.107 0.203 −0.033 0.027 0.049
29. vividly sensing a presence 29 48.3 6 Paralysis-presence 0.107 0.067 0.064 0.039 0.005 0.592 0.084 0.066 0.062 0.144 0.085 0.016 −0.016 0.158 0.039 0.011
45. seeing a face very close 45 23.5 6 Paralysis-presence 0.082 0.110 0.266 0.115 −0.194 0.454 0.054 0.122 0.030 −0.054 0.209 −0.081 0.028 0.176 0.087 −0.057
3. trying again and again 3 53.5 6 Paralysis-presence −0.043 0.047 0.138 0.051 0.165 0.329 0.006 0.157 −0.178 0.136 0.091 0.219 0.179 0.177 0.123 0.046
26. being an object (e.g., tree) 26 3.5 7 Self-transformation 0.009 0.075 0.054 0.125 0.010 −0.098 0.694 −0.024 −0.044 0.037 0.078 0.128 0.103 0.051 −0.066 −0.053
49. being an animal 49 8.0 7 Self-transformation 0.071 0.082 0.020 0.140 0.009 0.096 0.635 −0.009 0.019 0.059 0.130 0.072 0.109 −0.003 0.004 0.208
25. being member of opposite sex 25 11.9 7 Self-transformation 0.108 −0.084 0.151 −0.068 0.243 0.065 0.568 0.137 −0.096 0.087 −0.042 −0.159 −0.091 0.019 0.108 −0.119
12. falling 12 73.8 8 Falling-flying 0.085 0.038 0.083 −0.004 0.038 0.029 0.005 0.755 0.034 −0.037 0.051 −0.037 0.025 0.184 −0.041 0.005
37. being on the verge of falling 37 57.7 8 Falling-flying 0.075 0.080 0.076 −0.016 −0.046 0.130 0.068 0.698 0.139 −0.065 0.028 0.160 0.040 0.070 0.013 −0.018
11. flying or soaring through the air 11 48.3 8 Falling-flying 0.031 0.040 0.004 0.159 0.173 0.077 −0.016 0.456 −0.034 0.198 0.005 −0.064 0.061 0.034 0.167 0.343
24. insects or spiders 24 33.8 9 Snakes-insects 0.006 0.128 0.087 −0.019 −0.026 0.092 0.030 0.096 0.730 0.020 0.036 0.106 0.034 0.091 0.008 −0.065
9. snakes 9 22.1 9 Snakes-insects 0.128 0.006 0.059 0.096 0.043 −0.023 −0.077 0.035 0.630 0.001 0.070 0.060 0.129 0.041 −0.017 0.081
16. superior ...mental ability 16 24.4 10 Magic-myth 0.076 0.053 0.225 0.003 −0.029 0.133 0.018 −0.083 −0.047 0.678 0.097 0.046 −0.028 0.046 0.049 0.074
20. magical powers (not flying ...) 20 24.9 10 Magic-myth 0.096 0.001 0.165 0.142 0.041 0.055 0.150 0.028 0.120 0.602 0.096 −0.068 0.083 0.009 −0.016 0.159
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Table 2. (Continued )
52. encountering God 52 11.2 11 Epiphany 0.059 0.059 −0.022 0.028 0.100 0.005 0.024 −0.003 0.031 0.142 0.791 −0.013 −0.011 0.054 0.096 −0.030
51. seeing an angel 51 12.4 11 Epiphany 0.113 0.112 0.149 0.056 −0.022 0.102 0.142 0.103 0.076 0.038 0.730 −0.008 0.044 −0.033 −0.036 0.031
38. failing an examination 38 45.0 12 Failure 0.115 0.006 0.172 −0.029 0.069 0.059 0.074 −0.075 0.094 0.000 −0.051 0.689 −0.041 0.217 0.055 −0.017
6. arriving too late, e.g., ...a train 6 59.5 12 Failure 0.053 0.087 0.081 0.067 0.202 0.041 −0.006 0.166 0.067 −0.003 0.017 0.617 0.114 −0.065 0.046 −0.025
15. being tied, unable to move 15 21.4 13 Inhibition 0.141 0.008 0.109 0.055 0.130 0.156 0.152 0.011 0.127 −0.063 0.035 0.012 0.626 0.131 0.015 −0.079
39. smothered, unable to breathe 39 24.2 13 Inhibition 0.217 0.212 0.019 −0.062 0.035 0.193 0.023 0.139 0.065 0.007 0.003 0.017 0.512 0.068 0.108 0.056
8. being locked up 8 24.0 13 Inhibition 0.234 0.122 0.165 0.037 −0.020 0.026 0.053 −0.009 0.269 0.170 0.009 0.105 0.413 0.044 0.065 −0.060
31. school, teachers, studying 31 67.1 13 Inhibition 0.148 0.100 0.153 −0.124 0.102 0.140 0.078 0.029 0.163 −0.063 −0.012 0.391 −0.405 0.153 0.249 −0.020
4. being frozen with fright 4 40.7 14 Chase-fear 0.001 0.035 −0.100 0.003 0.200 0.265 −0.008 0.166 0.087 0.021 0.089 0.068 0.241 0.528 −0.026 −0.009
1. chased or pursued, not injured 1 81.5 14 Chase-fear 0.045 0.008 −0.005 0.079 0.045 0.088 0.030 0.173 0.062 −0.011 −0.022 0.130 0.036 0.513 0.101 0.102
53. discovering a new room 53 32.3 15 Loss of control 0.018 0.031 0.066 0.139 0.051 0.283 0.017 −0.058 −0.026 0.051 −0.028 0.100 −0.033 0.004 0.604 0.015
33. losing control of a vehicle 33 32.0 15 Loss of control 0.199 0.085 0.165 0.008 0.059 −0.203 0.026 0.083 −0.053 0.014 0.118 0.111 0.165 0.314 0.500 0.026
18. teeth falling out/losing teeth 18 18.8 15 Loss of control −0.107 0.010 −0.083 0.006 0.310 −0.030 −0.086 0.113 0.303 0.079 0.082 −0.007 0.119 −0.051 0.381 −0.095
55. someone having an abortion 55 5.1 16 beasts 0.145 0.060 0.120 0.114 0.069 0.105 0.112 −0.035 0.189 −0.141 −0.019 −0.044 0.105 −0.134 0.136 −0.583
17. creatures, part animal/human 17 16.8 16 beasts 0.077 0.054 0.094 0.102 0.026 0.218 0.350 0.008 0.156 0.122 −0.028 −0.058 0.048 −0.043 0.037 0.490
40. wild, violent beasts 40 15.9 16 beasts 0.151 0.222 −0.147 0.171 0.063 0.175 0.269 0.074 0.267 0.109 0.093 −0.004 −0.122 −0.052 0.066 0.325
% of Variance 4.397 3.862 3.850 3.519 3.461 3.387 3.314 3.046 2.981 2.961 2.852 2.828 2.743 2.525 2.491 2.409
Cumulative% 4.397 8.259 12.110 15.629 19.090 22.477 25.791 28.837 31.818 34.779 37.631 40.459 43.202 45.727 48.217 50.626
aTDQ: Typical Dreams Questinnaire item number.
bPrev: Lifetime prevalence of TDQ item.
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224 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
Table 3. Principal components average factor scores for 16 factors by gender
Factor Men Men Women Women Gender effect
PC factoraprevalencebMSDM SDF
cPcfavors:
1. Death-murder 78.9 −0.0306 0.9636 0.0124 1.0147 0.45 0.503
2. Disasters 45.3 0.0188 1.0626 −0.0076 0.9740 0.23 0.633
3. Positive themes 79.0 −0.0093 1.0699 0.0038 0.9708 0.09 0.763
4. Alien life 19.7 0.2769 1.2457 −0.1124 0.8566 36.38 <0.000001 Men
5. Sex-nudity 84.5 0.0633 0.9588 −0.0257 1.0157 2.19 0.139
6. Paralysis-presence 76.6 −0.0853 0.9579 0.0346 1.0151 3.86 0.050 Women
7. Self-trasformation 18.3 0.0277 1.0913 −0.0112 0.9609 0.46 0.499
8. Falling-flying 85.2 −0.0113 0.9903 0.0046 1.0044 0.07 0.798
9. Snakes-insects 42.7 −0.1902 0.9431 0.0772 1.0126 15.06 <0.00001 Women
10. Magic-myth 37.0 0.4619 1.0595 −0.1875 0.9109 106.92 <0.0000001 Men
11. Epiphany 18.0 0.0146 1.0485 −0.0059 0.9802 0.62 0.430
12. Failure 70.6 −0.1956 0.9882 0.0794 0.9944 20.94 <0.00001 Women
13. Inhibition 78.9 −0.0656 0.9978 0.0266 1.0002 2.44 0.119
14. Chase-fear 84.8 −0.0704 1.0093 0.0286 0.9954 2.53 0.112
15. Loss of control 57.8 −0.1599 0.9549 0.0649 1.0111 10.52 <0.0001 Women
16. Beasts 30.1 0.1009 0.9221 −0.0410 1.0276 4.73 0.030 Men
aPC factor: Principal components factor score identified by factor analysis with Varimax rotation.
bFactor prevalence: Percent of participants endorsing at least one of a factor’s component items (see Table 2).
cF,P: F-score and probability for factor score mean comparisons between men and women.
each accounted for relatively small portions of variance, from a high of 4.4 (Factor 1: Death-
murder) to a low of 2.4 (Factor 16: Beasts). A more liberal calculation of prevalence, in
which the presence of any component item of a factor signaled presence of that factor
(Table 3), revealed that whereas no factor attained a prevalence of 100%, Falling-flying
(8),Chase-fear (14) and Sex-nudity (5) each attained a prevalence of approximately 85%.
The observed factor structure indicates that, within individuals, there is an inclination
to endorse clusters of typical themes that share a common quality. The first three factors
(Death-murder,Disasters,Positive themes) account for the largest clusterings of themes
while remaining quite coherent in their content. Specifically, Factor 1, Death-murder,
groups 6 themes dealing with harm to the self (2, 27, 28, 43) and to others (36, 42). Factor
2, Disasters, incorporates 5 themes, including all of the natural disasters (21, 22, 23, 34)
as well as human accidents (54). Factor 3, Positive themes, includes 7 clearly pleasurable
themes (5, 7, 10, 19, 35, 41, 50).
Smaller clusterings of themes also reflected highly consistent content. To
illustrate:
•Factor 4 (Alien life) groups 46-seeing a UFO, 47-seeing extra-terrestrials and
48-travelling to another planet;
•Factor 5 (Nudity-sex) groups 4 themes about nudity (13,14), sexual experiences
(32) and the use of toilets (30);
•Factor 7 (Self-transformation) groups 26-being an object (e.g., tree), 49-being an
animal and 25-being a member of the opposite sex;
•Factor 8 (Falling-flying) clusters 3 prevalent themes that share the attribute of intense
vestibular involvement: 11-flying or soaring through the air, 12-falling and 37-being
on the verge of falling;
•Factor 9 (Snakes-insects) links 2 moderately prevalent themes about common ani-
mal phobias: 9-snakes and 24-insects or spiders;
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•Factor 11 (Epiphany) groups 51-seeing an angel and 52-encountering God in some
form.
The 5 items from our SP scale loaded on three different factors: 6 (Paralysis-presence),
13 (Inhibition) and 14 (Chase-fear). Two of these 5 (44,29) were among 4 themes com-
prising Factor 6 (44, 29, 3, 45) and confirm a significant association we previously observed
between paralysis and presence hallucinations among university students (Simard, et al.,
submitted). Another 2 of the 5 loaded on Factor 13 (15,39) as did Item 8-being locked up,
all clearly reflecting the theme of movement inhibition (a fourth item loading on this factor,
31- school, teachers, studying, is at best suggestive of inhibition). The fifth SP scale item (4-
frozen with fright) loaded on Factor 14 and appears to reflect a fear dimension since the only
other item loading on this factor is Item 1-chased/pursued. Understandably, the 5-item SP
subscale correlated more highly with these 3 factors than with any of the other 13: i.e., Fac-
tor6(r=.622, p<.001), Factor 13 (r=.496, p<.001), Factor 14 (r=.302, p<.001).
Discriminant Validity
To evaluate discriminant validity of the observed factor structure, separate stepwise
multiple regressions (probability in: 0.01, probability out: 0.10) were calculated between
factor scores and the 4 continuous variables described earlier. Factors scores were associated
with all 4 of these variables:
1. Eight factors were independently and positively associated with frequency of re-
called nightmares (R=0.377, F8,927 =19.15, p<.0001). In order of importance
these were Death-murder (1), Chase-fear (14),Inhibition (13), Self-
transformation (7),Paralysis-presence (6), Snakes-insects (9), Failure (12) and
Disasters (2). The highest zero-order correlation was for Death-murder
(r=0.213, p<.00000001). Note that all 3 SP-related Factors were associated
with nightmare recall.
2. Eight factors correlated positively with frequency of recalled dreams (R=0.341,
F8,951 =15.66, p<.0001). Four of these (Factors 1, 6, 7 and 14) were also corre-
lated with nightmare recall; the remaining 4 were associated exclusively with dream
recall: Sex-nudity (5), Positive themes (3), Loss of control (15) and Falling-flying
(8). The highest correlation was for Sex-nudity (r=0.182, p<.00000001).
3. Two factors correlated negatively with age (R=0.146, F2,1168 =12.65, p <. 0001),
indicating lower prevalence with increasing age: Failure (12), and Death-murder
(1). The highest correlation was for Failure (r=−0.124, p<.0001).
4. Two factors correlated negatively with the age of earliest theme (R=0.219,
F2,885 =22.29, p<.0001), indicating higher prevalence among participants who
report typical themes earlier in life; these were Loss of control (15) and Paralysis-
presence (6). The highest correlation was for Loss of control (r=−0.181,
p<.00000001).
To assess relationships with demographic variables, factor scores were entered as
multiple dependent measures into a 2 ×3 MANOVA with Gender (Men, Women) and
Region (McGill, Trent, Alberta) as independent variables. Gender, Region and Gender ×
Region effects were all highly significant ( p<0.002). For the Gender effect, 5 Factors (4,
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226 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
9, 10, 12, 15) significantly (all univariate p<0.0001) discriminated groups (Table 3); two
Factors (6, 16) demonstrated weak trends (p<.05). Men were more likely to report items
reflective of Alien life (4), Magic-myth (10) and Beasts (16), whereas women were more
likely to report items reflective of Paralysis-presence (6), Snakes-insects (9), Failure (12)
and Loss of control (15) (Table 3). All 4 factors characterizing women involve themes with a
negative, even nightmarish, emotional valence, whereas factors characterizing men involve
extraordinary and fantasy themes, mostly suggestive of a positive emotional valence.
For Region, 5 Factors (1, 10, 11, 12, 15) significantly discriminated groups; two others
(3, 5) showed trends (all p<.02). Alberta participants were more likely to report items
reflective of Positive themes (3) and Magic-myth (10) and less likely to report items
reflective of Death-murder (1) and Loss of control (15). Trent participants were more
likely to report items reflective of Epiphany (11) but less likely to report items reflective
of Failure (12). McGill participants were more likely to report items reflective of Sex-
nudity (5). For Gender ×Region interactions, only two trends (p=0.030) were observed:
Epiphany (11) and Loss of control (15).
DISCUSSION
The results of our analyses demonstrate the value and potential of this questionnaire
for characterizing the nature, prevalence and thematic constellations of diverse typical
dream themes. The results suggest (1) consistency of prevalence profiles in relation to
common demographic variables, (2) some variability in specific typical themes in relation
to demographic variables, and (3) the existence of at least 16 typical factors or dimensions.
Consistency of Prevalence Profiles
The high degree of consistency in prevalence profiles across regions, gender, age
and time supports the contention that many themes are common to large segments of
the population and that their prevalences are relatively unvarying despite numerous other
influences. The historical consistencies are particularly remarkable considering that the
comparison samples are separated by over 40 years of social and cultural change. These
consistencies further generalize the high inter-cultural consistencies previously reported by
Griffith, et al. (Griffith et al., 1958) and ourselves (Nielsen et al., 1999a). The consistencies
support the notion that some typical themes may be near-universal. However, the failure to
observe any item or factor with greater than 85% prevalence fails to support the notion of
complete universality of these themes.
It is noteworthy that the diversity of themes, i.e., the number of themes that participants
report, remains highly constant over gender and region. The average diversity score of about
16 (out of 55) themes per questionnaire was the same for men and women and for the 3
regions studied. Theme diversity is also consistent over cultures; Griffith, et al. (1958)
noted virtually no differences in diversity scores between Japanese (M =14.9 out of 34)
and American (M =15.0) samples. This degree of consistency is perhaps surprising in light
of the finding that a similar measure is related to several psychological variables: e.g., self-
awareness, introspection, insight and pathology on the MMPI (Griffith, 1950). Although
our between-regions consistencies were somewhat higher for women than for men, this
may be due to our additional finding that, relative to men, women’s typical themes are more
likely to be nightmarish and thus, possibly, less variable in nature.
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Four specific themes from the questionnaire (1-chased or pursued, not physically in-
jured, 12-falling, 31-school/studying, 32-sexual experiences) stand out by virtue of their
prevalences exceeding 60% and by constituting the principal four themes of both male and
female participants. At least two of these themes (31-schools, teachers, studying, 32-sexual
experiences)reflect directly the predominant concerns of new students in a University pro-
gram. However, it is less clear why the chase/pursuit and falling themes should also be
so prevalent in this population. These two are, in fact, among the most prevalent themes
in all of the different samples that we have studied to date. For example, the two most
prevalent themes among sleep-disordered patients are also falling (58%) and chase/pursuit
(55%) (Nielsen et al., 1999b). One possible explanation of these high values is an evolu-
tionary theory of dreaming (Revonsuo, 2000) which supposes that themes are transmitted
genetically because of their survival value. For example, the chase/pursuit theme may have
such a widespread occurrence because it has had a proven survival advantage, i.e., virtual,
first-person practice in escaping predators (Revonsuo, 2000). However, more elaborate the-
ories are needed to explain themes such as falling or flying in evolutionary terms (Germain,
Nielsen, Zadra, & Montplaisir, 2000). Another possible explanation is that the themes may
be so prevalent because they are highly salient—perhaps because of the involvement of
motor imagery—and thus more memorable (cf. Cohen, 1979 and see below).
In general, evidence of consistency over ages, genders, regions, historical cohorts and
cultures supports the notion that some typical themes are near-universal in occurrence. It
also supports the claim that such themes are linked to biological, psychological and/or socio-
cultural events common to human beings regardless of culture, gender and other mediating
circumstances. The findings do not, of course, indicate that typical dreams are necessarily
frequent (although some are) nor that they constitute a major proportion of all dream ex-
perience. They may, however, constitute a major proportion of the dreams that are initially
recalled and that individuals continue to recall and reflect upon over time.
Variation of Themes by Gender, Region and Age
In addition to evidence for general theme consistency, some findings for specific TDQ
items reveal important variations. Many of the regional, gender and age differences that we
observed may be plausibly interpreted as due to differences in developmental milestones
or personality attributes. Our findings for age clearly support this contention since the two
largest samples, from Alberta and Trent Universities, differed slightly but significantly in
age (Alberta participants were younger) and on several themes for which age was found
to be a distinguishing factor. Some of the items characterizing either the Trent or the
Alberta participants (32-sexual experiences; 35-a person now dead as alive; 38-failing an
examination; 45-seeing a face very close; 51-seeing an angel) also differentiated the younger
(≤18) from the older (≥19) age groups. Clearly, the probability of experiencing several of
these themes in waking life increases with increasing age, e.g., failing an examination,
sexual experiences, a person dying. In fact, when these themes were reported as being the
earliest themes that participants could recall, their mean ages of onset were nevertheless
later in childhood than most of the other themes. For example, 18-teeth falling out and 32-
sexual experiences as first themes occurred later (M =9.7 and 13.1 yrs respectively) than did
17-creatures, part animal, part human (M =4.9 yrs) or 13-being inappropriately dressed
(M =7.6 yrs). Thus, our observed variations in prevalence with age support Freud’s (1955)
notion that typical themes derive from important childhood experiences that are typical
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228 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
for a large segment of the population. It remains unknown whether individuals do, in fact,
first dream a given theme, such as sexual experiences, shortly after having experienced its
counterpart in waking life, but such a possibility could explain many of our findings for
prevalence as well as many of our gender and age differences. Moreover, the hypothesis
is feasible in light of widespread evidence that dream content incorporates current waking
life experience (Hall & Nordby, 1972; Schredl, 2000).
Other observed differences may be related to regional variations in psychological or
sociocultural factors that warrant closer study with appropriate instruments. In our study,
Trent students were distinguished from the other two groups by several TDQ items (e.g.,
51-seeing an angel, 38-failing an examination) and by loadings on two associated Factors
(i.e., high on 11 Epiphany, low on 12 Failure). Such findings suggest the possible value
of evaluating attributes such as religious/spiritual orientation and level of academic stress
as possible sources of typical theme dreaming. Alberta participants were distinguished by
high loadings on pleasant Factors (3 Positive themes,10Magic-myth) and low loadings
on unpleasant Factors (1 Death-murder,15Loss of control). Such a profile might warrant
further study of prevailing social or economic conditions as possible sources of typical
themes. McGill students were distinguished from the others by two TDQ items, one of
which (44-being half awake and paralyzed in bed) is a key component of SP experiences
(Nielsen et al., 2000b for review). Prevalence of SP experiences is known to vary by region
within Canada and to be associated with sociocultural beliefs within the region (Hufford,
1982; Firestone, 1985). Surprisingly, other features also thought to define sleep paralysis
experiences (29-vividly sensing...a presence, 39-being smothered, unable to breathe) were
not characteristic of McGill students but were more prevalent among Trent students. Such
inconsistencies indicate the need for further study of whether conditions such as SP—and
the sociocultural factors that may be associated—differentially affect the typical dreams of
participants in different regions of the country. Our preliminary analyses of a large sample of
sleep-disordered patients indicate that TDQ responses vary as a function of sleep symptoms;
however, regional variations have not yet been evaluated (Simard, et al., submitted).
Viewed historically, we replicated many, but by no means all, of the gender differences
reported by Griffith et al. (1958). There was evidence that gender differences obtained
in their 1950’s cohort are still present in contemporary student populations. One of these
themes, 32-sexual experiences, was the 2nd most prevalent theme in the present study (77%)
and demonstrated a 12% difference between men (85%) and women (73%). In this respect,
our findings are consistent with known gender differences in both quantity and quality of
sexual dream themes that have been identified with a variety of methodologies (Hall et al.,
1966; Hall, Domhoff, Blick, & Weesner, 1982). However, our observed gender difference
for the sexual experiences theme (12%) was substantially less than the 56.3% difference
observed in the Griffith et al. cohort (men: 92.5% vs. women: 36.2%) primarily because
the percentage of women in our cohort who endorsed the item was much larger than in
theirs. This difference lends some support to the argument that known gender differences
in dream content are due to differences in social role and not biology (Lortie-Lussier, 1991;
Lortie-Lussier, Simond, Rinfret, & De Koninck, 1992).
Some of the gender differences that we observed but that Griffith et al. did not observe
may also be explained as due to personality or sociocultural factors that have changed since
the earlier study. For example, in our study consistently higher prevalences among men than
among women for the flying theme may reflect current gender differences in frequency or
fear of air travel, whereas consistently higher prevalences among women than men for items
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Typical Dreams of Students 229
reflecting academic concerns (31-school, teachers, studying; 38-failing an examination)
may reflect recent increases in the preponderance of women in post-secondary programs.
However, it bears reiterating that the lack of complete consistency of our results with
the Griffith, et al. study, including the fact that we observed 6 gender differences that
were not present in their study, underscores the need for replication of the findings with
larger samples. The Griffith et al. study was limited in that it examined relatively small
samples, which is a particularly acute problem when attempting to characterize themes
with low prevalences in the population. Notwithstanding this caveat, our findings indicate
that variations in the prevalence of typical dream themes are a fertile source of hypotheses
about the probable personality and sociocultural sources of dream content.
Evidence for Typical Dream Dimensions?
Results from our exploratory factor analyses support the notion that groups of similar
themes are expressions of more general underlying dream dimensions. Sixteen potential
dimensions were identified in this sample, although some of these may be attributable to the
co-occurrence of multiple themes within the same dream. For example, a Death-murder
dream (Factor 1) could conceivably include a scene in which the components of Factor 1,
2-physically attacked (beaten ...raped), 27-being killed, and 28-seeing yourself as dead,
are all present in a sequence. Similarly, a single Paralysis-presence dream (Factor 6) could
well contain components 44-half awake and paralyzed, 29-vividly sensing a presence and
45-seeing a face very close in some combination. Such constellations of themes do, in
fact, correspond to some descriptions of nightmares and sleep paralysis experiences in the
literature (Hufford, 1982; Powell et al., 1998). To the extent that the TDQ detects such
combinations of themes, the factors we have uncovered would appear to describe either the
closely related attributes of a single dimension of dreaming, or the components of some
process of narrative organization within a dream.
On the other hand, many of the Factors we observed include themes that occur only
infrequently in a single dream. For example, it is rare that one and the same Disaster dream
will contain tornados, earthquakes, floods and fire. Similarly, it is rare that a single Positive
theme dream will encompass swimming, finding money, eating delicious foods and being
at a movie. Rather, for many of the TDQ Factors where within-dream groupings are rare, it
appears that groupings of themes tend to occur across dreams, i.e., within individuals over
time. In this case, the TDQ would seem to be sensitive to dimensions of dreaming whose
final forms of expression are quite distinct.
In either case—the grouping of themes within dreams or within individuals—the find-
ings support to some extent the notion that the factors index underlying mechanisms that
determine their shared content. Such mechanisms are likely affected by developmental
milestones, personality attributes, sociocultural influences, demographics, and other influ-
ences that are common to sizeable segments of the population. Emotions constitute a set of
such common influences that clearly seem to have affected many of our observed factors.
Embarrassment would appear to be common to 3, and possibly all 4, of the items comprising
Factor 5, Nudity-sex. Positive emotions would appear to be common to all 7 items in Factor
3, Positive themes. Negative emotions of varying types and degrees of intensity would seem
to characterize 6 Factors: 1 Death-murder,2Disaster, 9Snakes-insects,12Failure,14
Chase-fear and 15 Loss of control. Although fear is likely the emotion common to several
of these Factors, they are nevertheless distinguished by differences in the types of ‘objects’
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230 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
that trigger the fear. The constellations of typical themes around such emotional invari-
ants is roughly consistent with the notion that dreams serve to ‘contextualize’emotions,
particularly negative emotions (Hartmann, 1998).
Other identified Factors may be determined by components of personality that are
linked to fundamental imagery processes. Factor 7, Self-transformation, includes many
themes involving transformation of the dreamed self into another form, such as an object, an
animal or a member of the opposite sex. Such imaginal changes are rare, but occur especially
in dreams with a myth-like structure (Kuiken, Nielsen, Thomas, & McTaggart, 1983). It
is possible that themes in this category are shaped, in susceptible individuals, by a deep-
seated instability or flexibility of self-representation. A similar explanation may account for
Factor 2, Disaster, which includes many items involving rapid transformations of images
of the environment, such as tornadoes, earthquakes and the crashing of flying objects. This
factor may reflect a similar instability or flexibility of the imagination as applied to non-self
images. One might expect the occurrence of dream imagery with either self- or non-self
transformations to be differentially associated with measures of self-esteem, body image
boundaries, neuroticism, or other personality features.
Still other Factors identified by our analyses share cognitive or sensory attributes that
may have primarily physiological origins or for which physiological factors may interact
in unknown ways with sociocultural and personality determinants. For example, Factor 8,
Falling-flying, clearly involves themes with vestibular sensation, but flying dreams havealso
been linked with the desire for freedom (to remain in the United States) among newly-landed
Mexican immigrants (Brink, Brink, & Hunter, 1977). Similarly, Factor 13, Inhibition, which
involves themes of actions appearing thwarted (being tied; unable to move; being smothered,
unable to breathe; being locked up) may be linked to the ubiquitous muscle atonia present in
REM sleep (Liddon, 1967). However, the negative loading of the school, teachers, studying
theme on this Factor suggests that such an inhibitory process may also interact with person-
ality features such as learning aptitude, scholastic achievement or openness to experience.
In sum, observed clusters of TDQ themes support the existence of fundamental dream
dimensions that, in turn, imply underlying mechanisms of imagery organization and expres-
sion. Emotional, cognitive, personality and physiological processes may all be implicated
in this organization, but more specific investigations of typical themes and their correlates
is needed to clarify the relationships.
Other Questions Raised by the Existence of Typical Dream Themes
Our findings raise several additional questions about relationships between dreaming,
neurophysiology and personality that warrant further investigation and discussion. These
include questions about nightmares among women, the role of motor imagery, the nature
of sleep paralysis experiences, and the personal importance of typical themes.
Are Nightmare Themes More Typical of Women?
Women in our sample reported experiencing more nightmares in a typical month (about
2 on average) than did men (about 1.5). They also had higher prevalences of primarily
nightmarish themes and loaded higher than did men on 4 negatively-toned typical dream
factors. In fact, 7 of 8 (87.5%) individual TDQ themes that were more prevalent for women
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Typical Dreams of Students 231
are nightmarish in character whereas only 4 of 10 (40.0%) themes more prevalent for
men are. Signs of a gender difference in disturbed dreaming appear as early as age 16
(Nielsen, Laberge, Tremblay, Vitaro, & Montplaisir, 2000a) and may be due to any of several
factors differentially affecting girls of this age: trauma, stressful life events, depression,
anxiety symptoms, sleep problems in general. Our analyses of TDQ factors found no gender
differences for factors depicting the most severe negative themes (i.e., 1 Death-murder and
2Disaster), seemingly ruling out extremely stressful events, such as accidents or trauma,
as the source of young women’s nightmares. Rather, in the present study women were
differentiated from men by their reporting of themes involving phobias (Factor 9 Snakes-
insects), performance anxiety (Factor 12 Failure) and control problems (Factor 15 Loss of
control). These factors appear to reflect the influence of moderately stressful life events,
or perhaps anxiety disorders such as Overanxious Disorder, as our previous study suggests
(Nielsen et al., 2000a).
Are Early Themes Shaped by Motor Imagery?
For the four most prevalent ‘earliest themes’reported (i.e., 1-chased or pursued, not
physically injured, 3-trying again and again to do something, 11-flying or soaring through
the air, 12-falling) vigorous motor activity or movement is clearly central to the theme.
Two of these items (1,12) were also found to be the most prevalent themes independent
of their ‘earliest’status. It is possible that the presence of vigorous activity in this im-
agery rendered it more memorable and thus more likely to have been recalled at a younger
age, a situation which would be expected if motor imagery is, in fact, a central attribute
of dreaming as has been postulated (Porte & Hobson, 1996). Another possible explana-
tion is that the typicality of these themes derives from an early developmental change in
some common physiological, perceptual or personality process related to heightened motor
drive.
What Components of Sleep Paralysis Experiences Differentiate Gender?
Our a priori SP subscale replicated the previous finding that women more often report
SP dreams than do men (Fukuda, Miyasita, Inugami, & Ishihara, 1987; Nielsen et al., 2000b)
and was validated to some extent by evidence of high correlations between SP score and
Factor scores on 3 of the 16 principal components factors (i.e., 6 Paralysis-presence, 13
Inhibition and 14 Chase-fear). The first of these factors suggested a Gender difference
(p=.050) but not the others. Further, individual SP-related themes on the TDQ did not all
clearly differentiate women from men in our study. Only the “paralysis with fear”theme
(4-being frozen with fright) distinguished the two robustly (p=.0002). The more central
“paralysis with consciousness”theme (44-being half awake and paralyzed in bed) did
not ( p=.335); nor did the sensed presence theme (29-vividly sensing...a presence in the
room)(p=.081) or the choking theme (39-being smothered, unable to breath)(p=.113).
These findings suggest that it may be the association of paralysis with fear, as often occurs
in nightmares, which may differentiate women’s SP experiences from men’s. We have, in
fact, observed elsewhere that SP is more prevalent among nightmare sufferers than among
control participants or among other types of sleep disorders patients, including those with
narcolepsy (Simard, et al., submitted).
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232 Nielsen, Zadra, Simard, Saucier, Stenstrom, Smith, and Kuiken
Are Important Themes Determined by Their Prevalence/Frequency?
The personal importance that some participants attribute to typical themes was high-
lighted by the present findings. The findings suggest that a theme’s importance is only
roughly related to its prevalence or its frequency. The most prevalent and frequent themes
(1-chased or pursued, not physically injured, 32-sexual experiences) were also two of the
most important. Yet, some of the themes involving death (35-a person now dead as alive,
36-a person now alive as dead) were much less prevalent but nevertheless rated as impor-
tant as often as were the more prevalent themes. The personal importance of typical dream
themes varies considerably from individual to individual, even though the same theme may
be dreamed by many people.
Limitations of the Study
There are limitations inherent in the use of this type of methodology. While such an
easily administered questionnaire7may well broaden the scope of participant sampling,
its validity may also be questioned. It may be argued, for instance, that the retrospective
responses are heavily influenced by memory biases or social and cultural stereotyping,
and are not representative of individuals’actual dream experiences. Recall for dreams
may be distorted or impoverished over time, possibly as a function of the person or per-
sons to whom the dreams are related, whether the themes are culturally acceptable (e.g.,
sex/violence vs. eating), whether an individual’s memory is reliable and many other factors
(see Cohen, 1979 for review). It might even be argued that questionnaires purporting to
assess responses from as far back as childhood reflect what university students believe
they have dreamed rather than their true dream experiences. To illustrate this problem, one
study found poor correspondence between what participants reported they dreamed about
on a general questionnaire and what they actually reported dreaming about in home diaries
(Bernstein, Belicki, & Gozalez, 1995).
Such criticisms are fundamental to promoting progress in this type of research. How-
ever, as in any domain where construct validation is at stake, the most constructive reply is
to follow up the research with replication and the use of complementary methods. For ex-
ample, to the extent that existing research suggests that retrospective questionnaires tend to
underestimate the frequency of some types of dream experience (e.g., nightmares) relative
to daily sampling methods (Wood & Bootzin, 1990; Salvio, Wood, Schwartz, & Eichling,
1992; Zadra & Donderi, 2000), the present results might be seen to underestimate the preva-
lence of typical dreams. Additional study with daily sampling methods is clearly called for.
Further, daily sampling within a cross-sectional design with several age groups might re-
spond to questions about the fallibility of memory for dreams that occurred many years ago.
And, of course, personality questionnaires, including those containing scales for exaggera-
tion and deception, should be administered to determine whether participants are truthful,
whether memory and sociocultural factors are associated with recall of typical dreams and
whether typical dreams simply reflect the reporting of culturally sanctioned stereotypes. In
general, however, it should be noted that most of the themes evaluated in the TDQ are quite
7The most recent version of the Typical Dreams Questionnaire contains 56 items and uses a continuous, Likert-type
(1-5) response scale rather than a binary scale and takes slightly longer to complete. A French or English copy
may be obtained by contacting the first author.
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Typical Dreams of Students 233
salient and impactful (e.g., flying, sexual encounters, attack) and are thus more likely than
mundane dreams to be resistant to distortion and distinguishable from cultural stereotypes.
Studies such as that by Bernstein & Belicki (1995), which assess very general attributes
of dreaming (e.g., aggression, friendliness), are therefore perhaps ill-suited for comparison
with results from the TDQ.
Memorable themes tend to be objects of self-reflection and social exchange and are
frequently referred to in determining the personal and sociocultural significance of dreams.
A more complete understanding of the breadth and nature of typical themes thus remains
key to appreciating how people—individually and collectively—ultimately draw meaning
from their dreams.
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Typical Dreams of Students 235
APPENDIX 1—THE TYPICAL DREAMS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Date:
Age: Sex: Occupation:
For the following items, please check all of the boxes [ ] that apply.
Have you ever dreamed of ...
1. [ ] being chased or pursued, but not physically
injured
2. [ ] being physically attacked (beaten, stabbed,
raped, etc)
3. [ ] trying again and again to do something
4. [ ] being frozen with fright
5. [ ] eating delicious foods
6. [ ] arriving too late, e.g., missing a train
7. [ ] swimming
8. [ ] being locked up
9. [ ] snakes
10. [ ] finding money
11. [ ] flying or soaring through the air
12. [ ] falling
13. [ ] being inappropriately dressed
14. [ ] being nude
15. [ ] being tied, unable to move
16. [ ] having superior knowledge or mental ability
17. [ ] creatures, part animal, part human
18. [ ] your teeth falling out/losing your teeth
19. [ ] seeing yourself in a mirror
20. [ ] having magical powers (other than flying or
floating through the air)
21. [ ] floods or tidal waves
22. [ ] tornadoes or strong winds
23. [ ] earthquakes
24. [ ] insects or spiders
25. [ ] being a member of the opposite sex
26. [ ] being an object (e.g., tree or rock)
27. [ ] being killed
28. [ ] seeing yourself as dead
29. [ ] vividly sensing, but not necessarily seeing or
hearing, a presence in the room
30. [ ] being unable to find, or embarrassed about
using, a toilette
31. [ ] school, teachers, studying
32. [ ] sexual experiences
33. [ ] losing control of a vehicle
34. [ ] fire
35. [ ] a person now dead as alive
36. [ ] a person now alive as dead
37. [ ] being on the verge of falling
38. [ ] failing an examination
39. [ ] being smothered, unable to breathe
40. [ ] wild, violent beasts
41. [ ] being at a movie
42. [ ] killing someone
43. [ ] lunatics or insane people
44. [ ] being half awake and paralyzed in bed
45. [ ] seeing a face very close to you
46. [ ] seeing a UFO
47. [ ] seeing extra-terrestrials
48. [ ] travelling to another planet or visiting a
different part of the universe
49. [ ] being an animal
50. [ ] being a child again
51. [ ] seeing an angel
52. [ ] encountering God in some form
53. [ ] discovering a new room at home
54. [ ] seeing a flying object crash (e.g., airplane)
55. [ ] someone having an abortion
Other (please describe):
Which theme occurred most often in your life (please specify number from 1–55)?
Which theme occurred earliest in your life (please specify number from 1–55)? At what age? years
How many dreams of any kind do you recall in an average month?How many nightmares?
Thank you for your assistance.
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