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ASD 2000 Conference 17 Abstracts

Millennial Dreaming: Washington, D.C.

Literature is replete with anecdotal reports of the association of dreaming with creative process from Descartes visualization of the scientific method to Coleridge's "Kubla Khan." Sigmund Freud addressed both, proposing dreams as unconscious wish fulfillment and creativity as the unconscious reaction to childhood abuse. We have shown that an association between dreaming and creativity can be evidenced experimentally in a series of studies done with film makers at Sundance film Institute in Utah (1) The Sundance Institute Film Makers Study, showed significantly increased dream use and dream recall among successful film makers when compared to the general population and to the working group (drivers and crew) involved in the film making process. Based on study results, it was postulated that creative individuals are more likely to be psychologically close to their dreams. The results of the Filmmaker studies is supported by the following study in progress:

COLORADO SLEEP CENTER CREATIVITY AND DREAMING - STUDY 1: A clear association between dreaming and creativity occurs in film makers, but what 
about the general population? Would dream recall and dream incorporation into awake behavior vary in the general population with creative interest? The following current on-going study (N=148) shows an association between reported dream recall and dream use and reported interest in creative process.

METHODOLOGY: Individuals undergoing clinical polysomnography in a sleep laboratory completed a previously validated questionnaire accessing dream recall and dream effect on a spectrum of awake behaviors. They were asked, as well, to describe their degree of creative interest rated on a 1-5 Likert scale where 1 = hobby/ interest and 5 = income producing / life focus.

RESULTS:
 

REPORTED LEVEL OF CREATIVE INTEREST #	GENDER F/M	AVG. AGE	AVG.  RDI	AVG. RECALL(1-5)	AVG. SUM	TOTAL DREAM USE (17-85)
[1]	78	27/51	48.8	47.1	2.83	31.55
[2]	49	19/30	47.3	27.1	2.75	28.65
[3]	85	20/65	49.2	41.9	2.97	33.90
[4]	44	14/30	50.4	33	2.61	31.04
[5]	36	22/14	57.9	45.6	3.10	37.27

SIGNIFICANT DATA

(.01) - EFFECTS OF DREAMING ON EMOTIONS [5] > [1]
(.05) - EFFECTS OF DREAMING ON ORGANIZING DAILY ACTIVITY [5] > [1]

AVG. SUM TOTAL DREAM USE, RECALL AND MULTIPLE INDIVIDUAL QUERIES

FOR GROUP [5] ARE GREATER THAN GROUP [1] AT A SIGNIFICANCE LEVEL (0.1)

The authors postulate that the trend of increased dream recall and use associated with higher creative interest suggested by this study will become increasingly significant with increased study size.

DISCUSSION:

This study, while still in progress, is supportive of the Sundance Film Maker Study, showing experimental evidence for the correlation between creative interest and the recall and awake behavioral incorporation of dreaming.

J. F. PAGEL MD, K. E. BROYLES MA, M. PALASIO RRT