Animal dreams have fascinated mankind for ages. Empirical research indicated that children dream more often about animals than adults and dogs, cats, and horses are the most frequent animals that appear within dreams. Moreover, most dreamer-animal interactions are negative. The present study included 4849 participants (6 to 90 yrs. old) reporting 2716 most recent dreams. Overall, 18.30% of these dreams included animals with children reporting more animal dreams that adolescents and adults. The most frequent animals were again dogs, horses, and cats; about 20% of the dream animals were in fact pets of the dreamers. About 30% of the dream animals showed bizarre features, e.g., metamorphosing into humans or other animals, bigger than in real life, or can talk. Taken together, the findings support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming but also the idea that dreams reflect waking-life emotions in a metaphorical and dramatized way. Future studies should focus on eliciting waking-life experiences with animals, e.g., having a pet, animal-related media consumption, and relating these to experiences with animals in dreams.
ColaceC. (2006).
Children’s dreaming: A study based on questionnaires completed by parents. Sleep and Hypnosis,
8, 19–32.
2.
DespertJ. L. (1947).
Dreams in children of preschool age. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child,
3(1), 141–180.
3.
DomhoffG. W. (1996). Finding meaning in dreams: A quantitative approach.
Plenum Press.
4.
EichenlaubJ.-B.CashS. S.BlagroveM. (2017). Daily life experiences in dreams and sleep-dependent memory consolidation. In AxmacherN.RaschB. (Eds.), Cognitive neuroscience of memory consolidation (pp. 161–172).
Springer.
5.
FoulkesD. (1967).
Dreams of the male child: Four case studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied disciplines,
8(2), 81–98.
6.
FoulkesD. (1982). Children’s dreams: Longitudinal studies.
John Wiley and Sons.
7.
FoulkesD.PivikT.SteadmanH. S.SpearP. S.SymondsJ. D. (1967).
Dreams of the male child: An EEG study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology,
72(6), 457–467.
8.
FreudS. (1991). The interpretation of dreams (org.: Die traumdeutung, 1900).
Penguin Books.
9.
GackenbachJ.GahrS. (2015).
Media use and dream associations between Canadians of differing cultural backgrounds. International Journal of Dream Research,
8(1), 2–9.
10.
GarfieldP. L. (1984). Your child’s dreams.
Ballentine.
11.
HallC. S.NordbyV. J. (1972). The individual and his dreams.
New American Library.
12.
HallC. S.Van de CastleR. L. (1966). The content analysis of dreams.
Appleton-Century-Crofts.
13.
HalpertE. (1980).
Death, dogs and annubis. International Review of Psychoanalysis,
7, 385–395.
14.
HannahB. (2006). The archetypal symbolism of animals: Lectures given at the C.G. Jung institute.
Chiron, Enfield.
15.
Harris-McCoyD. E. (2012). Artemidorus’ oneirocritica: Text, translation, and commentary.
Oxford University Press.
16.
HartmannE. (2011).
Continuity? Yes, emotional continuity. International Journal of Dream Research,
4, 77.
17.
HartmannE.ZborowskiM.KunzendorfR. (2001).
The emotions pictured by a dream: An examination of emotions contextualized in dreams. Sleep and Hypnosis,
3, 33–43.
18.
HillmanJ. (1982).
The animal kingdom in the human dream. Eranos Jahrbuch,
51, 279–334.
19.
KimminsC. W. (1973). Children’s dreams (1931). In LeeS. G. M.MayerA. R. (Eds.), Dreams and dreaming (pp. 83–109).
Penguin.
20.
KlepelF.SchredlM. (2019).
Correlation of task-related dream content with memory performance of a film task—A pilot study. International Journal of Dream Research,
12(1), 112–118.
21.
KruegerD. W.KruegerL. N. (2005). Animals in children’s stories. In AkhtarS.VolkanV. (Eds.), Cultural zoo: Animals in the human mind and its sublimations (pp. 127–144).
International Universities Press.
22.
LambrechtS.SchredlM.Henley-EinionJ.BlagroveM. (2013).
Self-rated effects of reading, TV viewing and daily activities on dreaming in adolescents and adults: The UK library study. International Journal of Dream Research,
6, 41–44.
23.
LewisJ. E. (2008).
Dream reports of animal rights activists. Dreaming,
18(3), 181–200.
24.
MalinowskiJ. E.HortonC. L. (2015).
Metaphor and hyperassociativity: The imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming. Frontiers in Psychology,
6, 1132.
25.
MathesJ.SchredlM. (2016).
Threats in dreams: Are they related to waking-life?International Journal of Dream Research,
9, 58–66.
26.
MathesJ.SchredlM.GöritzA. S. (2014).
Frequency of typical dream themes in most recent dreams: An online study. Dreaming,
24(1), 57–66.
27.
MoverleyM.SchredlM.GöritzA. S. (2018).
Media dreaming and media consumption—An online study. International Journal of Dream Research,
11(2), 127–134.
28.
RansohoffR. (1975).
The elephant in dream and myth. Clinical Social Work Journal,
3(1), 3–15.
29.
RevonsuoA. (2000).
The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences,
23(6), 877–901.
SándorP.SzakadátS.KertészK.BódizsR. (2015).
Content analysis of 4 to 8 year-old children’s dream reports. Frontiers in Psychology,
6, 534.
32.
SchnellA. M. (1955).
Über gespensterträume bei Schulkindern—Teil I. Psychiatrie, Neurologie Und Medizinische Psychologie,
7, 10–18.
33.
SchredlM. (2003).
Continuity between waking and dreaming: A proposal for a mathematical model. Sleep and Hypnosis,
5, 38–52.
34.
SchredlM. (2009).
Home dream recall in children and young adults. International Journal of Dream Research,
2, 58–59.
35.
SchredlM. (2012).
Continuity in studying the continuity hypothesis of dreaming is needed. International Journal of Dream Research,
5, 1–8.
36.
SchredlM. (2013).
Animal dreams in a long dream series. International Journal of Dream Research,
6, 59–64.
37.
SchredlM. (2015). The continuity between waking and dreaming: Empirical research and clinical implications. In KramerM.GlucksmanM. (Eds.), Dream research—Contributions to clinical practice (pp. 27–37).
Routledge.
38.
SchredlM. (2018). Researching dreams: The fundamentals.
Palgrave Macmillan.
39.
SchredlM. (2020).
Being someone or something else in the dream: Relationship to thin boundaries. Imagination, Cognition and Personality,
40(1), 43–51.
40.
SchredlM.BerresS.KlingaufA.SchellhaasS.GöritzA. S. (2014).
The mannheim dream questionnaire (MADRE): Retest reliability, age and gender effects. International Journal of Dream Research,
7, 141–147.
41.
SchredlM.DollE. (1998).
Emotions in diary dreams. Consciousness and Cognition,
7(4), 634–646.
42.
SchredlM.Henley-EinionJ.BlagroveM. (2016).
Dream sharing, dream recall, and personality in adolescents and adults: The UK library study. Imagination, Cognition and Personality,
36(1), 64–74.
43.
SchredlM.PallmerR. (1998).
Geschlechtsunterschiede in angstträumen von SchülerInnen. Praxis Der Kinderpsychologie Und Kinderpsychiatrie,
47, 463–476.
44.
SchredlM.ReinhardI. (2008).
Gender differences in dream recall: A meta-analysis. Journal of Sleep Research,
17(2), 125–131.
45.
SchredlM.SartoriusH. (2006).
Frequency of dream recall by children and their mothers. Perceptual and Motor Skills,
103(3), 657–658.
46.
SchredlM.StruckV. S.SchwertC.BleiM.Henley-EinionJ.BlagroveM. (2019).
Gender differences in the dream content of children and adolescents: The UK library study. American Journal of Psychology,
132(3), 315–324.
47.
SikkaP.RevonsuoA.SandmanN.TuominenJ.ValliK. (2018).
Dream emotions: A comparison of home dream reports with laboratory early and late REM dream reports. Journal of Sleep Research,
27(2), 206–214.
48.
StephanJ.SchredlM.Henley-EinionJ.BlagroveM. (2012).
TV viewing and dreaming in children: The UK library study. International Journal of Dream Research,
5, 130–133.
49.
StrauchI.MeierB. (1996). In search of dreams: Results of experimental dream research.
State University of New York Press.
50.
Van de CastleR. L. (1983). Animal figures in fantasies and dreams. In KatcherA. H.,BeckA. M. (Eds.), New perspectives on our lives with companion animals (pp. 148–173).
University of Pennsylvania Press.
51.
Van den BulckJ. (2004).
Media use and dreaming: The relationship among television viewing, computer game play, and nightmares or pleasant dreams. Dreaming,
14(1), 43–49.
52.
Van den BulckJ.ÇetinY.TerziÖ.BushmanB. J. (2016).
Violence, sex, and dreams: Violent and sexual media content infiltrate our dreams at night. Dreaming,
26(4), 271–279.
53.
WamsleyE. J. (2018). Dreaming and waking thought as a reflection of memory consolidation. In FoxK. C. R. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of spontaneous thought: Mind-wandering, creativity, and dreaming (pp. 457–468).
Oxford University Press.
