The question of age changes in frequency of dream recall was addressed in a questionnaire survey of 295 college-educated men and women aged seventeen to seventy. Dream recall was found to be maximal for men and women alike during the college years, with a subsequent decline to a much lower level in the forties and beyond. The drop in recall frequency is paralleled by a declining interest in, and valuation of, dreaming among middle-aged and older adults.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AserinskyE. and KleitmanN., Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena during Sleep, Science, 118, pp. 273–274, 1953.
2.
BaradM.AltschulerK. Z., and GoldfarbA. I., A Survey of Dreams in Aged Persons, Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, pp. 419–424, 1961.
3.
AltschulerK. Z.BaradM.GoldfarbA. I., A Survey of Dreams in the Aged, II; Noninstitutionalized Subjects, Archives of General Psychiatry, 8, pp. 33–37, 1963.
4.
SmithM. and HallC. S., An Investigation of Regression in a Long Dream Series, Journal of Gerontology, 19, pp. 66–71, 1964.
5.
KrohnA. and GutmannD., Changes in Mastery Style with Age: A Study of Navajo Dreams, Psychiatry, 34, pp. 289–300, 1971.
6.
BrenneisC. B., Developmental Aspects of Aging in Women: A Comparative Study of Dreams, Archives of General Psychiatry, 32, pp. 429–435, 1977.
7.
ZepelinH., Age Differences in Dreams, I: Men's Dreams and Thematic Apperception Fantasy, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 12, pp. 171–186, 1981.
8.
RamseyG. V., Studies of Dreaming, Psychological Bulletin, 50, pp. 432–455, 1953.
9.
de ManacéineM., Sleep: Its Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, and Psychology, Walter Scott, London, 1897.
10.
HeerwagenF., Statistische Untersuchungen über Träume und Schlaf, in Philisophische Studien, 2, Wundt (ed.), p. 88, 1888.
11.
ZepelinH., A Survey of Age Differences in Sleep Patterns and Dream Recall among Well-educated Men and Women (abstract), Sleep Reviews, 2, p. 81, 1973.
12.
GiambraL. M., Sex Differences in Daydreaming and Related Mental Activity from the Late Teens to the Early Nineties, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 10, pp. 1–34, 1979.
13.
SingerJ. L. and AntrobusJ., Imaginal Processes Inventory, 1970. Unpublished.
14.
WingetC.KramerM., and WhitmanR. M., Dreams and Demography, Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 17, pp. 203–208, 1972.
15.
GoodenoughD. R.ShapiroA.HoldenM., and SteinschriberL., A Comparison of “Dreamers” and “Nondreamers”: Eye Movements, Electroencephalograms, and the Recall of Dreams, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, pp. 295–302, 1959.
16.
KahnE.FisherC., and LiebermanL., Dream Recall in the Normal Aged, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 17, pp. 1121–1126, 1969.
17.
ZepelinH., An Investigation of Age Differences in Men's Dreams and Thematic Apperceptive Fantasy, doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1972.
18.
BrinkT. L., Dream Therapy with the Aged, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 14, pp. 354–360, 1977.
19.
HintonL., Jung's Approach to Therapy with Mid-life Patients, Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 7, pp. 525–541, 1979.
20.
JungC. G., Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, Pantheon, N.Y., 1953.
21.
JungC. G., Memories, Dreams and Reflections, Random House, N.Y., 1961.
