I thought some of you might be interested in the following article. Jeff ------------------------------------ http://neurology.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2001/06/06.12/20010611clin002.html Accurate Dream Recall Unlikely CHICAGO (Reuters Health) Jun 11 - Individuals are not very reliable witnesses to their own dreams, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Sleep Societies. Dr. William H. Moorcroft said that a person's recall of the details of dreams is as rife with errors as eyewitness reports of actual events. "Our dream recall, even immediately after the dream is experienced, is not as accurate as we think it is — and we may not capture as much of the original dream as researchers who try to understand dreams had assumed," Dr. Moorcraft said. "Furthermore, our dream recall changes with time, so it's the same psychological process that happens when we're awake." Dr. Moorcroft and colleagues at the Sleep and Dreaming Laboratory at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa awakened 14 subjects from early morning rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when dreams are most numerous and vivid. They asked subjects to recall, and record on audiotape, the dream they were having when awakened. The subjects were asked to recall the same dream the next morning, a week later and a month later. Comparison of the components of the four tape-recorded recall sessions revealed that, on average, only half of the dream components were recalled in any one of the four sessions, the investigators found. Of the dream elements recalled immediately following REM sleep awakening, thought by most researchers to be the most accurately recalled, subjects were able to recall fewer than 44% in any of the subsequent sessions. "We're convinced, in taking a look at these four recalls for each dream, that you can recognize the essential story in each of these," Dr. Moorcroft said. "So, it's not that the changes are so dramatic...but rather the changes are in the specific components, and these...components do vary over time: some are recalled, some are added and some are lost." Dr. Moorcroft concluded that these data should prompt researchers and therapists and others who work with dream interpretation to "exercise a level of caution, and not to assume that the recall is the dream...and realize that we can't be as exact about our theories about what dreams are for and about." -- Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213 9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298 Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED] Scottsdale Community College Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Listowner: Psychologists Educating Students to Think Skeptically (PESTS) http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/sbscience/pests/index.html
