Dream Recall: Research, Clinical Implications and Future Directions

In 1953, Aserinsky and Kleitman published their paper on the so-called REM sleep which accounts for about 20 % of the total sleep time in adults. REM sleep is characterized by rapid eye movements, activated EEG and muscle atonia. Awakenings from REM sleep are very often accompanied by reports of intense dreaming (1). Since REM sleep occurs regularly every night in every human being, it can be assumed that dreaming defined as cognitive/emotional activity during REM sleep is also present every night. Furthermore, Foulkes (2) has shown that NREM sleep is also accompanied by mental activity. Despite this stable physiological pattern the variability of dream recall is large: some persons almost never recall a dream, whereas others can relate a detailed account of their nocturnal experiences every morning. In average, adults recall at home one to two dream per week (3,4). The present article reviews the hitherto developed theories explaining the variability of dream recall. In addition to a section discussing measurement issues, the empirical findings are briefly summarized in order to evaluate the different theories. Furthermore, some clinical implications of dream recall research will be outlined. A possible therapeutical benefit of enhancing dream recall was suggested by the findings of Cartwright et al (5). To conclude, a few ideas to stimulate future research are presented.