A Systematic Change in Dreams after 9/11/01

Abstract

Previous studies of dreams after trauma and stress have found increases in the power of the central image of the dream. However, it has been difficult to perform properly controlled studies of dreams before and after trauma. The present study is designed to compare dreams before and after 9/11/01 in the same persons. The assumption is that the events of 9/11 produced mild trauma or at the very least emotional arousal in everyone living in the United States. Forty-four persons in the United States who had been recording all their dreams for years each provided 20 consecutive dreams from their records--the last 10 recorded before 9/11 and the first 10 after 9/11. These dreams were assigned random numbers and scored on a blind basis using a number of rating scales with established reliability. Dreams after 9/11 showed a highly significant increase in central image intensity, as well as central image proportion (number of dreams with scorable central images) but no change in dream length, dream-likeness, overall vividness, or content involving airplanes or tall buildings. There were no "exact replay" dreams picturing the actual events of 9/11 seen repeatedly on TV. These results are consistent with the Contemporary Theory of Dreaming, which emphasizes the role of underlying emotion in producing central dream imagery and suggests that the intensity of the central dream imagery is related to the power of the underlying emotion.