Lucid dreaming frequency and personality

Abstract

The term lucid dream designates a dream in which the dreamer is––while dreaming––aware that she/he is dreaming. Within an unselected student sample, 82% of the participants reported the occurrence of at least one lucid dream. In this sample, lucid dreaming frequency was not associated with the Big Five personality factors and, thus, theories linking lucid dreaming with introversion or well-being, that is, low neuroticism scores have not been supported. However, substantial but small correlations have been found for two openness facts (“fantasy”, “ideas”) and for dimensions which are associated with the openness to experience factor: Thin boundaries, Absorption and Imagination. Since these correlations are similar to corresponding correlations to dream recall frequency and the relationships between lucid dreaming frequency and these personality dimensions are mediated by dream recall frequency, it might be concluded that the direct relationship between lucid dreaming frequency and personality is rather small. Other variables such as meditation experience, field independence on a perceptual level, performance of the vestibular system should be included in future models explaining interindividual differences in lucid dreaming frequency. Nightmare frequency was moderately associated with lucid dreaming frequency. Although partialling out dream recall frequency reduced the magnitude of the correlation, the still significant partial correlation supports the reports of lucid dreamers that nightmares can trigger lucidity. Controlled studies investigating the effect of training the technique of lucid dreaming on nightmare frequency have not yet been carried out.