Effect of Dreams on Daytime Mood: The Effects of Gender and Personality

A variety of studies in dream research focused solely on the effect of waking life on dream content (overviews: (1-3)), even though several studies (4-8) indicate that the reverse relationship, i.e., dreams affecting subsequent waking life, can also be encountered frequently. Similar to the findings supporting the continuity hypothesis of dreaming (9) which states that waking life is reflected in subsequent dreams, these studies indicate that there is also a continuity between dreams and subsequent waking life. However, factors with might modulate this type of continuity are poorly understood. The findings that nightmares exert a strong effect on waking life (10) might imply that dreams that are toned especially negatively affect waking life. The studies of Wasserman and Ballif (4) and Schredl and Reinhard (11), however, found that the effects of positive and negative emotions on daytime mood are equally pronounced. Wasserman and Ballif (4) and Pagel and Vann (5) found that women reported effects of dreams on daytime mood more often. Since dream recall frequency is also higher in Effect of Dreams on Daytime Mood: The Effects of Gender and Personality