Editing Dream (section)

== Subjective experience and content ==
{{Further|Oneiromancy}}
[[File:Raja Ravi Varma, Usha's Dream (oleographic print).jpg|left|thumb|''Usha Dreaming Aniruddha'' (oleographic print) [[Raja Ravi Varma]] (1848–1906)]]

Preserved writings from early Mediterranean civilizations indicate a relatively abrupt change in subjective dream experience between [[Bronze Age]] antiquity and the beginnings of the [[classical antiquity|classical era]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Damasio |first=Antonio |author-link= Antonio Damasio |date=2010 |title=Self Comes to Mind |location=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |quote=…I sympathize with Julian Jaynes's claim that something of great import may have happened to the human mind during the relatively brief interval of time between the events narrated in the ''Iliad'' and those that make up the ''Odyssey''. |page=289 |isbn=978-0-307-37875-0}}</ref>

In visitation dreams reported in ancient writings, dreamers were largely passive in their dreams, and visual content served primarily to frame authoritative auditory messaging.<ref>{{Citation |last=Nielsen |first=Tore A. |contribution=Reality Dreams and Their Effects on Spiritual Belief: A Revision of Animism Theory |editor-last1=Gackenbach |editor-first1=Jayne |editor-last2=Sheikh |editor-first2=Anees A. |title=Dream Images: A Call to Mental Arms |year=1991 |pages=233–264 |place=Amityville, NY |publisher=Baywood |isbn=0-89503-056-X}}</ref><ref name="Dodds1"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Atwan |first=Robert |title=The Interpretation of Dreams, The Origin of Consciousness, and the Birth of Tragedy |journal=Research Communication in Psychology, Psychiatry and Behavior |year=1981 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=163–182}}</ref> [[Gudea]], the king of the Sumerian city-state of [[Lagash]] (reigned {{circa}} 2144–2124 BCE), rebuilt the temple of [[Ningirsu]] as the result of a dream in which he was told to do so.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> After antiquity, the passive hearing of visitation dreams essentially gave way to visualized narratives in which the dreamer becomes a character who actively participates.

From the 1940s to 1985, [[Calvin S. Hall]] collected more than 50,000 dream reports at [[Western Reserve University]]. In 1966, Hall and Robert Van de Castle published ''The Content Analysis of Dreams'', outlining a coding system to study 1,000 dream reports from college students.<ref name="hallcontent">Hall, C., & Van de Castle, R. (1966). The Content Analysis of Dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. [http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/Info/content_analysis.html Content Analysis Explained] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070412100915/http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/Info/content_analysis.html |date=12 April 2007}}</ref> Results indicated that participants from varying parts of the world demonstrated similarity in their dream content. The only residue of antiquity's authoritative dream figure in the Hall and Van de Castle listing of dream characters is the inclusion of God in the category of prominent persons.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dreams.ucsc.edu/Coding/characters.html |title=The Classification and Coding of Characters |last1=Schneider |first1=Adam |last2=Domhoff |first2=G. William |publisher=University of California at Santa Cruz |access-date=17 July 2021}}</ref> Hall's complete dream reports were made publicly available in the mid-1990s by his protégé [[William Domhoff]]. More recent studies of dream reports, while providing more detail, continue to cite the Hall study favorably.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schredl |first1=Michael |last2=Ciric |first2=Petra |last3=Götz |first3=Simon |last4=Wittmann |first4=Lutz |date=November 2004 |title=Typical Dreams: Stability and Gender Differences |journal=The Journal of Psychology |volume=138 |issue=6 |doi=10.3200/JRLP.138.6.485-494 |pmid=15612605 |pages=485–494 |s2cid=13554573}}</ref>

[[File:Dream of Polish volunteers in French army 1914.JPG|thumb|upright|A soldier dreams: the trenches of WWI. [[Jan Styka]] (1858–1925).]]

In the Hall study, the most common emotion experienced in dreams was [[anxiety]]. Other emotions included [[Abandonment (emotional)|abandonment]], [[anger]], [[fear]], [[joy]], and [[happiness]]. [[Negative emotion]]s were much more common than positive ones.<ref name="hallcontent"/> The Hall data analysis showed that sexual dreams occur no more than 10% of the time and are more prevalent in young to mid-teens.<ref name="hallcontent"/> Another study showed that 8% of both men's and women's dreams have sexual content.<ref>Zadra, A., [http://www.journalsleep.org/PDF/AbstractBook2007.pdf "1093: Sex dreams: what do men and women dream about?"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222607/http://www.journalsleep.org/PDF/AbstractBook2007.pdf |date=27 September 2007}}, ''Sleep'' Volume 30, Abstract Supplement, 2007 A376.</ref> In some cases, sexual dreams may result in [[orgasm]]s or [[nocturnal emission]]s. These are colloquially known as "wet dreams".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR157/04Chapter04.pdf |title=Badan Pusat Statistik "Indonesia Young Adult Reproductive Health Survey 2002–2004" p. 27 |access-date=4 April 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209171035/http://measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR157/04Chapter04.pdf |archive-date=9 December 2012}}</ref>

The visual nature of dreams is generally highly phantasmagoric; that is, different locations and objects continuously blend into each other. The visuals (including locations, people, and objects) are generally reflective of a person's memories and experiences, but conversation can take on highly exaggerated and bizarre forms. Some dreams may even tell elaborate stories wherein the dreamer enters entirely new, complex worlds and awakes with ideas, thoughts, and feelings never experienced before the dream.

People who are blind from birth do not have visual dreams. Their dream contents are related to other senses, such as [[hearing]], [[Somatosensory system|touch]], [[Olfaction|smell]], and [[taste]], whichever are present since birth.<ref>{{cite news |title=How do blind people dream? – The Body Odd |url=http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/03/09/10602730-how-do-blind-people-dream?lite |date=March 2012 |access-date=10 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124114342/http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/03/09/10602730-how-do-blind-people-dream?lite |archive-date=24 January 2013}}</ref>

=== Effects of regional or global catastrophes === 
The [[COVID-19 pandemic]] also influenced the content of people's dreams, according to a scientific study of over 15,000 dream reports by [[Deirdre Barrett]]. This analysis revealed that themes involving fear, illness, and death were two to four times more prevalent in dreams following the onset of the pandemic than they were before.<ref>{{cite web | last=Heidt | first=Amanda | title=Why Are Recurring Dreams Usually Bad Ones? | website=Scientific American | date=2025-01-14 | url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-are-recurring-dreams-usually-nightmares/ | access-date=2025-01-15}}</ref>