The effects of dream-telling in elderly persons

1998

Stadt und Kanton Bern

To date, there have been relatively few investigations performed in which the dreams of the elderly were taken into account and studied. To our knowledge, there has been only one study carried out in which elderly persons in an institution were asked for their dreams on a regular basis for an extended period of time. In the report of that investigation, it is mentioned that the surveyed individuals respond well to having interest shown in their dreams and that their sense of subjective well-being improved in many cases. We are thus proposing to examine systematically the effects elicited when elderly persons are given an opportunity to tell their dreams on a regular basis. Parameters being investigated include subjective sleep quality, dream recall frequency, dream tone and psychological well-being. Twenty healthy volunteer subjects over 65 years of age are being recruited from Berne and its surroundings for this purpose. Two age-matched control groups of 20 subjects each will be included to determine if the effects found are due to dream telling or due to other aspects of the interventions, such as being asked for dreams and/or being regularly contacted.

This baseline study was designed to investigate the effects of regular dream-telling in mentally healthy elderly clinical research volunteers on six variables using standardized testing and self-report: life satisfaction, sleep duration, sleep quality, dream recall, dream tone, and dream epoch. 19 men and 42 women (non-institutionalized) between 61 and 87 years of age (median: 71 years) living in Switzerland, responded to two newspaper articles describing a project to study dream-telling in the aged. Current neuropsychiatric disorders according to DSM-IV were ruled out using clinical evaluation and standardized testing. Subjects were divided into two control groups and a study group which were matched for gender, age, and living situation (alone or with a partner). Those in the study group were given a weekly opportunity via telephone to tell dreams, while those in the control groups were contacted for the same amount of time. One control group was asked about sleep and dreaming in general without going into the details of dream contents, while the subjects in the other control group were only asked unspecifically about their well-being and sleep quality. All study participants were tested for intrapsychic boundaries (by use of the Boundary Questionnaire according to Hartmann), sleep disturbances (by use of the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire), and quality of life (by use of the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire) at the beginning and at the end of the six month trial period. The above-mentioned six variables showed no significant differences among the three groups. The present findings may thus serve as a baseline for future studies involving geriatric patients with mental disorders or elderly undergoing significant life-events, e.g., bereavement or retirement, using the method of regular dream-telling.