Daydreams, Nightmares, and Insomnia: The Relation of Waking Fantasy to Sleep Disturbances

Abstract

College students were administered an abbreviated form of the Imaginal Processes Inventory along with scales of sleep disturbance, positive mood, and dream recall. Results confirmed the earlier report by Starker and Hasenfeld that sleep disturbances were significantly associated with dysphoric patterns of daydreaming, and not associated with a positive daydreaming pattern. Correlational, factor-analytic and multiple linear regression analyses revealed sex differences possibly related to differential sensitivity to inner experience.