Incorporation of Concern- and Nonconcern-Related Verbal Stimuli into Dream Content

The hypothesis that cues related to subjects' current concerns can control attentional and cognitive processes during sleeping and dreaming was examined by presenting concernand nonconcern-related verbal stimuli to seven male subjects during sleep Stages 2 and REM. The taped dream reports were judged for stimulus incorporation by two independent raters. The results revealed that concern stimuli were incorporated significantly more often than nonconcern stimuli in Stage REM, although low dream recall rates prevented assessment of whether this relationship also existed in Stage 2. This rinding supports the results of a number of other studies which indicate that responsiveness to auditory stimuli during sleeping and dreaming is largely dependent on the personal significance of the stimulus to the sleeper. It further suggests that sleeping subjects are capable of making more complex and subtle cognitive discriminations, based on the waking value of the stimulus to the subject, than has previously been demonstrated.