Premium
A preliminary study of dream‐telling among mentally healthy elderly: no adverse effects on life or sleep quality
Author(s) -
Funkhouser Arthur T,
Cornu Claude M,
Hirsbrunner HansPeter,
Bahro Marcel
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/1099-1166(200010)15:10<917::aid-gps218>3.0.co;2-8
Subject(s) - dream , psychology , active listening , nightmare , quality of life (healthcare) , mental health , sleep (system call) , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist , computer science , operating system
While there have been several studies about dreams and dreaming among the elderly, there does not seem to have been any study of the effects of regular dream‐telling (without interpretation). Listening to dreams could become a regular part of caring for the elderly and infirm. The effects of regular dream‐telling in mentally healthy elderly clinical research volunteers were measured on several variables using standardized testing and self‐report: life satisfaction, intrapsychic boundaries, sleep quality, sleep duration, dream recall, dream tone, and dream epoch, and were compared with two control groups. The six variables showed no significant differences among the three groups, indicating that dream‐telling produced no adverse effects. The present findings seem to imply that dream‐telling is not dangerous for mentally healthy individuals and may thus serve as a baseline for future studies involving geriatric patients with mental disorders or elderly undergoing significant life‐events, e.g., bereavement or retirement, using the method of regular dream‐telling. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.