Dream Consciousness in Problem Solving

Abstract

The conventional paradigm for understanding dreams is to divide human experience into two realms: the sleep state in which dream thought appears and the waking state in which conscious thought appears. The study of lucid dreaming during the sleep state has challenged this dichotomy from the sleep component. Lucid dreaming can have conscious thought and control. The present report describes an experiment which suggests that the essence of dream thought may consciously be applied in the waking state. Forty-six college students were asked to apply an operational definition of dream consciousness to four problem solving tasks. A wide variety of responses were produced, and a normal distribution of dream thought was observed. The implications for considering dreams and conscious thought were discussed.