Emotional Language Use in Mind-Wandering and Dream Reports Reflects Mental Well-Being and Ill-Being

Do the words we use reveal how we feel? While much research has explored language use in social media, little is known about how the content of spontaneous thoughts and experiences—daytime mind-wandering and nighttime dreaming—reflects well-being and ill-being. Here, we analyzed 1496 mind-wandering reports (N = 152) and 1781 dream reports (N = 172) using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Participants also self-reported their well-being and ill-being. Multilevel regression analyses showed that ill-being (negative affect, anxiety and depression symptoms) was associated with negative tone and negative emotion words (including anxiety, anger, sadness words) in mind-wandering reports. Although links between ill-being and negative tone in dream reports were weaker, well-being was exclusively associated with positive emotion word use in dream reports. These findings indicate that the way people describe their feelings in reports of different conscious states reflects mental health and may contribute to future diagnostic tools in psychology and psychiatry.