Effect of personality and presleep mood on dream recall.

The present investigation confirms and extends previously reported evidence of a predictable association between presleep mood and dream recall. Infrequent (but not frequent) dream recallers were more likely to recall dreams when presleep self-confidence was lowest than when it was highest for an individual subject. This result directly contradicts the repression hypothesis of dream recall. In addition, for habitually low self-confident and "sensitizer" subjects only, the lowest self-confidence rating during a five-day recording period was associated with unpleasant dream affect; the highest self-confidence rating was associated with pleasant dream affect. These findings support the hypothesis that the relationship between presleep mood and dream affect is modified by enduring subject characteristics that reflect coping effectiveness.