Abstract
In response to the wide-spread use of the questionnaire method to obtain estimates of subjective dream experiences, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of formal question characteristics on responses to these questions. 316 undergraduate students were administered a questionnaire containing questions on frequency of dream recall, quality of dream affect, and frequency of sleep disturbance. Each variable was measured by questions asked from three suggested time perspectives. These were presented in six orders and the influence of order of presentation, time perspective, and question wording on responses was evaluated. Order was found to influence the response distributions of two questions (2–2 and 2–3). It was also found that question wording had considerable impact. Estimates of frequency of dream recall were consistent across time perspectives. Estimates of sleep disturbance, however, appeared quite vulnerable to the influence of question wording, order, and time perspective.
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