Author: Kelly Bulkeley

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Hall and Van de Castle Norm Dreams Now in the SDDb

Thanks to the help of Bill Domhoff and Adam Schneider (and of course Kurt Bollacker), the set of 981 Hall and Van de Castle male and female “Norm Dreams” are now in the SDDb and available for study using the database tools.  Long available on the Dreambank.net website, the Norm Dreams have been widely cited in research literature for many decades, and it’s a big boost to the SDDb to include this historically significant dream collection.

Calvin Hall gathered these dreams from 100 female and 100 male college students from two colleges near Cleveland, Ohio, from 1947-1950.  Each student provided five dream reports of no less than 50 words and no more than 300 words in length.  The complete set of 1000 dreams served as the foundation for Hall’s book with Robert Van de Castle, The Content Analysis of Dreams in 1966.  Hall and Van de Castle called them the Norm Dreams because their content frequencies could be used as a basis for comparison with other groups, as a measuring stick to determine what counts as normal or abnormal proportions of dream content.

That’s a strong claim, of course, too strong perhaps, but only because Hall and Van de Castle’s data were relatively limited.  The goal of trying to identify large-scale, widely distributed patterns in dreaming remains a worthwhile pursuit, and now we have much more data and much better tools than Hall and Van de Castle had to seek them out.

The first thing I did once the Norm Dreams were in the SDDb was to try a series of identical word searches in the Dreambank and the SDDb.  I wanted to insure that the original texts (981 remain, 19 were lost some time ago) were exactly the same in both databases and that their search results were directly comparable.

Phew!  Every word I searched for in the Norm Dreams in the SDDb yielded the same results as a search for the same word in the Norm Dreams in the Dreambank. (Individual words being searched in the Dreambank have to be framed with^ ^.  For example, to search for the word anger, the term must be typed ^anger^.)

Next, I wanted to check the Norm Dreams for their frequencies on the SDDb 40-category template and compare these results to the frequencies I found using an earlier prototype of this template in my 2009 paper in Consciousness and Cognition, where I reported word search findings on the Norm Dreams in the Dreambank.  I have made several minor changes and additions to the 40 categories since 2009, so I expected the results now to be slightly higher but essentially the same.

Again, the results were reassuring (although I didn’t have the counts from 2009, just the percentages).  When I searched the Norm Dreams for each of the SDDb’s 40 word categories, the frequencies were the same or slightly higher as the frequencies I found in 2009 applying similar categories to the Norm Dreams in the Dreambank.  The Earth and Transportation categories had the biggest increase between the two analyses, due to the addition of several new terms to these two categories when I originally programmed the SDDb’s template.

The one exception was the Weather category, which initially showed a lower frequency in the SDDb analysis compared to the earlier Dreambank analysis.  When I investigated the differing results more closely, I found I had not done a very good job translating all the weather-related words into the SDDb template.  Several words were missing from Weather category in the SDDb template that I had used in the Dreambank analysis.

Doh!

When I performed an adjusted SDDb search including these previously excluded words, the results were back in line with the expected similarity between the two databases. (This makes me think I’ll need to re-check all the categories when I next get a chance to upgrade the template.)

These initial findings have given me confidence that the Hall and Van de Castle Norm Dreams can be studied using the word search tools of the SDDb in a way that’s consistent, reliable, and open to comparison with analyses from the Dreambank or any other research project making use of the Norm Dreams.

All of this means it’s getting easier and easier to make apples-to-apples comparisons of dream content using word search technology.

I doubt the dreams of 200 college students from 1940’s Ohio can give us a complete representation of all human dreaming (though there are actually many intriguing “big dream” experiences in the set).  But I share Hall and Van de Castle’s goal of identifying broad patterns of dream content.  I’m hopeful that word search methods, applied to larger collections of data from more diverse groups of people, will help us move closer to that goal.

Note: the statistical table I created with the frequencies for the 40 categories can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Who Sleeps Worst in the US? The Surprising Truth

An excellent guest post on Ryan Hurd’s Dream Studies website by A.L. Castonguay looks at sleep as a misunderstood public health issue.  Specifically, who in America is sleeping relatively well, and who is sleeping poorly?  The latter group is important to identify because inadequate sleep can lead to physical, emotional, and cognitive problems–not to mention disrupted, diminished dreaming.

Castonguay draws upon data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on sleeplessness in the US to discuss factors of age, region, employment status, and obesity, among other demographic variables.  Castonguay’s analysis shows that people who most often report sleeplessness, “defined as insufficient sleep (less than 7 hours per night) on more than 14 days within the past 30, are predominantly people of color…between the ages of 25-44, unable to work, and obese.”

These findings raise a number of questions about the cultural and behavioral influences on sleep.  I have also found in previous research that poor sleep corresponds to economic anxieties and employment concerns (e.g., Chapter 5, “Work and Money,” of American Dreamers).  I just received data from a new demographic survey of American adults, and a quick scan of the results point in the same direction–people at the lower end of the income scale sleep worse than people at the top end.

The obesity figures are striking, especially when shown on a regional map of the US.  The Southern part of the US has the highest proportion both of people who are obese and who get insufficient sleep.  We don’t know what’s cause and effect, but it seems there’s a strong and dynamic relationship between the two problems.

It turns out that the states with the lowest relative frequencies of insufficient sleep are California, Oregon, and the Dakotas.  Who knew?

One point Castonguay doesn’t mention that intrigues me is the relatively good sleep of Asians and Hispanics compared to other people of color (Black, American Indian, Multiracial).  The number of participants in these racial/ethnic groups may be low and thus less statistically representative, but the figures are consistent with hints I’ve found in my own research.

If, as the topline results indicate, culture plays a role in quality of sleep, we need a lot more detailed information about how individual people’s sleep experiences are shaped by the multiple strands of cultural influence, including ethnic background, economic status, education, family life, and eating behaviors.

 

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Research Suggestions Welcome

The basic functionality of the Sleep and Dream Database is now in place and ready to use.  Some aesthetic tweaks still need to be made, and better export options are in the works, but I’m finally starting to turn my attention from the architecture of the database to its contents.  In coming weeks I will upload several new data sets, including the Hall and Van de Castle norm dreams, a new demographic survey from Harris Interactive, and a collection of reports from a small group of people who have been wearing the Zeo sleep manager device while keeping dream journals.

 

Looking farther ahead, I’d like to collect dream reports from distinctive individuals and/or groups whose waking life concerns could be studied in light of patterns in their dreams.  For example, I’d love to study the dreams of serious athletes to learn about their visions of victory and fears of injury or defeat.  It would be fascinating to look at the dreams of avid gun owners to understand better the psychological roots of their passion for firearms.  I’d be curious to explore the dreams of both prison inmates and prison guards, to get a deeper sense of life on both sides of the penal system.

Now the SDDb is up and running, these kinds of projects are easier than ever to pursue.

If you have suggestions about types of people you think would be good prospects for new research, please let me know.  Better yet, if you would like to collaborate in gathering and analyzing dreams from specific groups, I’d like to hear what you have in mind.

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Integral Dreaming: A Holistic Approach to Dreams

I recently received a copy of a new book by Fariba Bogzaran and Daniel Deslauriers, titled Integral Dreaming: A Holistic Approach to Dreams, just published by State University of New York Press.  Fariba and Daniel are a wife-and-husband team who bring tremendous experience, knowledge, and creative insight to the study of dreams.  I will write a longer review of the book in a future issue of DreamTime magazine.  For now, I’ll just say that anyone who is interested in integral psychology in the lineage of Ken Wilber will certainly want to take a look at Bogzaran and Deslaurier’s work, which artfully combines phenomenological philosophy, scientific research, and practical dreamwork methodology.

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Cosmo Romance Dreams

A couple of years ago a reporter from Cosmopolitan magazine sent me a list of dream types she had gathered from other women in her office.  I can’t remember if an article ever appeared, but I thought the dreams were interesting as expressions of the concerns many women feel about their romantic relationships.  Here is the intro I gave to the reporter, the dream types, and my comments. (Note: I just found a copy of the article.  It appeared in the December 2010 issue, p. 112, under the rather lurid title “What Your Freaky Love Dreams Mean.”)

 

Many of these dreams seem to have a distressing, negative tone, so let me say that in general I look at “bad” dreams and nightmares as valuable opportunities for insight and growth.  Such dreams usually revolve around the most emotionally important and challenging issues of our lives.  They focus on our difficulties precisely in order to give us a deeper understanding of what’s going on and what we might do about it.

 

1) You’re back with an ex.
*Is there a different interpretation depending on whether the ex you dreamt about was a nice guy who you had a good relationship with vs. a bad guy who didn’t treat you well?
Dreaming about one’s past romantic partners never ends.  He may be gone from your waking life, but, for better or worse, he’ll linger in your dreams forever.  These kinds of dreams do NOT automatically mean you want to get back together with him.  Rather, they reflect the complex and long-lasting impact any serious relationship makes on your unconscious mind. The details of the dream are important: I would want to know, in what situations does your ex appear?  What kind of emotional energy does he bring into the dream scenario?  If he’s a “good” ex, perhaps the dream suggests there’s still a way in which his presence is a helpful force in your waking life.  If he’s a “bad” ex, maybe it reflects a sense of still being trapped in the relationship, or possibly threatened by something symbolized by his kind of personality.

2) Your partner betrays you in some way (like cheating, lying, or revealing something personal about you to everyone).
This is the price of a committed relationship: a vulnerability to betrayal.  No matter how strong a relationship may appear in waking life, both people inevitably suffer some degree of insecurity, both conscious and unconscious, about their partner’s being unfaithful.  This insecurity naturally comes out in dreams that vividly portray how badly you would feel if your partner violated your trust and fidelity.  It’s possible the dreams are clues to an actual problem in the relationship (again, the details matter), but usually such anxiety dreams are reminders of our exposure to extreme emotional pain whenever we form a romantic bond with someone else.
3) You blow it with your man (whether by having a one-night stand, saying something cruel to him, etc.).
Monogamy doesn’t come easily.  We all have within us complex and conflicting feelings about our romantic partners.  It’s important to acknowledge and accept those feelings when they arise in dreams, even if we don’t necessarily act on them.  That said, if someone were having these dreams frequently, I’d certainly wonder about the quality of their waking relationship.
4) You’re engaged, and there’s something off about your ring—the stone is missing or so small you can’t see it, it’s ugly, etc.

An engagement ring is an ancient emblem of love and commitment, a very public announcement of two people’s plans for a future life together.  This makes it an excellent dream symbol for a person’s feelings about the impending marriage.  Because the focus in these dreams is usually on the appearance of the ring, I’d want to ask if there’s a concern about the appearance vs. the substance of the relationship.

5) Something weird happens during your wedding (like you can’t see the groom’s face).

A wedding is one of the most momentous rituals of human society, a true rite of passage that forever binds two people’s lives into one.  The awesome magnitude of this life change is often reflected in distressing dreams of wedding day disaster.  A Buddhist perspective might be helpful here: In that tradition’s view, a dream of wedding catastrophe could be a good dream because it shows your old way of life is dying and a new and better way of life is being born.  The weirdness reflects the shifting of your reality from the past to the future.  In the case of the groom’s missing face, it might be that his appearance and personality are not the primary focus here; what’s ultimately important is the power of the vows you’re making with him.

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Dystopian Dreaming

While sitting in the audience and taking notes during the recent IASD conference in Berkeley, I found myself marking several instances where something the presenter said triggered my dystopian imagination.  I confess to being a long-time fan of science fiction and fantasy stories about frightening future worlds controlled by alien invaders, zombie hordes, inhuman technologies, totalitarian governments, and/or rapacious capitalists (I made a list of some favorites below).  I enjoy these stories as literary nightmares: vivid, emotionally intense simulations of real psycho-cultural threats, looming now and in our collective future.

 

At the IASD conference I realized I could turn this interpretive process inside out.  I began to look at dream research from the genre perspective of dystopian fiction.  What would an uber-villain in such stories find appealing in state-of-the-art dream research?

 

Let me be clear, these are my own shadowy speculations and in no way reflect anything directly said or intended by the presenters!

 

Sleep paralysis induction.  There is now a proven technique for inducing the nightmarish experience of sleep paralysis–that is, causing someone to enter a condition in which their bodies are immobilized but their minds are “awake” and vulnerable to terrifying images, thoughts, and sensations.   I can imagine this technique being put to nefarious use by military intelligence agents, state-controlled psychiatrists, and cybernetic overlords.  The ability to trap a person within a state of sleep paralysis would be a horribly useful tool for anyone bent on total mind control.

 

Transcranial magnetic stimulation.  This technology enables the direct manipulation of neural activity during REM sleep, targeting specific regions of the brain.  If the technology were refined with malevolent purposes in mind, it could potentially disrupt people’s normal dreaming patterns, controlling what they do and don’t dream about.  An evil scientist could thus invent a kind of anti-dream weapon, a magnetic beam aimed at the head of a sleeping person and programmed to stun, control, or destroy.

 

Disrupting PTSD memory formation.  Trauma victims can diminish the symptoms of PTSD if they perform a series of distracting cognitive tasks with six hours of the trauma, thereby disrupting the formation of long-term traumatic memories.  The future militarization of this method seems inevitable.  Anything that alters memory can be used by evil governments to manipulate people against their will, either to do things they don’t want to do (black ops soldiers) or forget things that have been done to them (massacre survivors).

 

Remote monitoring of a person’s sleep.  The Zeo sleep monitoring system (which I’ve used for three years) has now developed a wireless version that instantly relays the user’s sleep data from the headband via a bedside mobile phone to the Zeo database.  This kind of technology opens the door to real-time remote monitoring of people’s sleeping experience, and potentially the ability to reverse the flow of data and influence/shape/guide people while they sleep.  If enough people were linked into the system, it could serve police states as a valuable tool in 24-hour mind-body surveillance.

 

My interest in these morbidly malevolent scenarios is not entirely theoretical.  Over the past few years of developing the Sleep and Dream Database I’ve been thinking of the darker possible applications of this technology, less Star Trek and more Blade Runner.  If it’s true, as most researchers at the IASD are claiming, that dreams are accurate expressions of people’s deepest fears, desires, and motivations, then it’s also true a real potential exists to put that dream-based information to ill use.

 

Projecting even farther forward, I wonder if there might be some kind of future inflection point where the amount of data we gather suddenly reveals much bigger patterns and forms of intelligence than we had previously been able to recognize or scientifically document.  What would happen if this leap of knowledge enabled our collective dreaming selves to somehow unite to challenge the dominance (one might say totalitarian regime) of waking consciousness?

 

I think about all this as I continue building up the SDDb, trying to make good decisions and avoid the nightmare pitfalls.  Dystopian fantasies help me clarify what’s at stake, where the dangers lurk, and how the future may unfold.

 

You may be familiar with Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 science fiction short story “The Nine Billion Names of God.”  If so, you’ll understand why, as I work on developing new database technologies for dream research, I meditate on the phrase, “The Nine Billion Dreams of God.”

 

 

 

Dystopian Films and TV: Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys, Children of Men, Logan’s Run, The Matrix, Soylent Green, V for Vendetta, Battlestar Galactica, The Prisoner, Gattica, Terminator, Alien, Total Recall, 28 Days

 

Dystopian Novels: The Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, Neuromancer, 1984, Brave New World, The Time Machine