Dreaming About One’s Own Children: An Online Survey

Abstract

Social interactions with close persons are very important and one would expect – according to the continuity hypothesis of dreaming – that the dreamer's own children would show up in dreams quite frequently. So far the extent to which dreams include the dreamer’s own children has not been studied systematically. Overall, 1695 persons (960 women, 735 men; age mean: 53.84 ± 13.99 years) completed an online survey that included questions about dreams and waking-life experiences with their children. The findings indicate parents dream about their children in 17% of the remembered dreams, whereas participants without children only dream about having fictive children in the dream in less than 3% of all their recalled dreams. Results indicate that average emotional tone of the dreams with their own children was positive, but dreams might also focus on conflicts and worries as the mean emotional tone within dreams was less positive that the mean estimates of the emotional tone of the waking-life relationship. This first study on the frequency with which a dreamer’s own children appear in their dreams is a starting point to take a closer look at the way the parent-child relationship is reflected in dreams.