Emotional Language Use in Mind-Wandering and Dream Reports Reflects Mental 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. Linear mixed-effects models 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. Ill-being (specifically, negative affect) was also associated with greater use of anxiety words in dream reports. However, no associations were found between measures of well-being and emotional language use in either mind-wandering or dream reports. These findings indicate that the way people describe their feelings in reports of different conscious states reflects aspects of their mental health and may contribute to future diagnostic tools in psychology and psychiatry.