Do We Dream About the People We See Every Day?: A Longitudinal Test of the Social Simulation Theory of Dreaming

Researchers have established that dreams are intensely social and populated by diverse characters, including important figures from the dreamer’s daily life. This study examines the types of characters that appeared in participant dreams over two weeks. We found that the majority of dreams include strangers in addition to known individuals, and that personality measures impact the likelihood of dreaming about different types of people. Appearance of known individuals from daily life in dreams was assessed by comparing dream reports to the core support networks of participants and daily diaries. We found that relationship-specific variables and daily interaction were important predictors of the likelihood of support network dream appearances. While daily interaction generally increases the likelihood of dream appearances, this effect is reversed for important family members like parents or siblings, indicating that dreams may play a compensatory role in maintaining relationships with close others when they are not present.