The hypothesis of dream continuity states that our dreams are an extension of our waking life. Dreams can reflect our real-life experiences and problems and contain representations of events that happened in our daily reality. However, most of the current research on this topic focuses on the short-term imprint of reality in our dreams, which means that we might be losing sight of large-scale changes.
One of the world’s eminent dream researchers, Michael Schredl of the Sleep Laboratory in Mannheim, Germany, has decided to probe a little deeper to see if long-term shifts could influence the content of our dreams. Specifically, he chose global warming as his research topic. According to surveys conducted from 1999 to 2017, between 20% and 40% of people are concerned about the consequences of this phenomenon. This topic has been on the public agenda for many years now and, accordingly, is likely to influence our dreams.
To test this effect, the scientist analyzed a dream journal that had been kept for over 30 years. Having started recording his dreams at the age of 22 in 1984, the dreamer recorded everything he dreamed until 2015. In total, he had over 11 thousand dreams during this time. Having processed the text using machine analysis, Michael Schredl then collected data on climate statistics. It turned out that elements associated with cold – such as snow, ice, and hail – became less common in the dream journal over time.
Thus, if at the beginning of the study these elements were present in 5% of all dreams, by 2015, the incidence of such imagery decreased to 0.87%. At the same time, in Germany, where the participant lives, the number of days per year with temperatures below zero has also significantly decreased. Thus, the effect of global warming is indeed reflected in human dreams.
We have already written about how global issues like COVID-19 affect our dreams. In particular, they are reflected in the phase states (lucid dreams and out-of-body experiences), being of separate interest for study. In other words, if this kind of shift affects dreams in general, then as reality becomes hotter, our travels in the phase state will also rise in temperature.
What is the weather like in your ordinary and lucid dreams?
The article was published in January 2021 in the International Journal of Dream Research.
