Dreaming during Sleep Onset and Awakening 1

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to investigate the characteristics of the dreaming during the beginning and the end of sleep, both phases being transitional between different states of consciousness (wakefulness vs sleep and vice versa). The hypothesis of an adaptive function of the mental activity in the two sleep phases is put forward to ensure a continuity of self-experience in the passage from one state of vigilance to another. 40 dream reports collected at sleep onset and at spontaneous morning awakening, when analysed, supported the hypothesis. Independently of the physiological sleep stage during which dreaming occurs, the results seem to highlight similarities rather than differences in dreaming which occurs during sleep onset and morning awakening.