The Typical Dreams of Canadian University Students.

TLDR

The study aimed to examine the dimensional structure of typical dreams among first‑year university students across three Canadian cities. To achieve this, the researchers administered the Typical Dreams Questionnaire to 1,181 students and performed factor analysis to identify underlying dream themes. The analysis revealed 16 coherent dream factors explaining 51 % of variance, with little variation by age, gender, or region; women tended to load on negative themes while men on positive ones, supporting the stability of typical dream themes across demographic and sociocultural contexts.

Abstract

To investigate the dimensional structure of dreams, the Typical Dreams Questionnaire (TDQ) was administered to 1181 first-year University students in three Canadian cities. A profile of themes was found that varied little by age, gender or region; however, differences that were identified could be interpreted as due to developmental milestones, personality attributes or sociocultural factors. Factor analysis produced a solution consisting of 16 coherent factors that were differentially associated with demographic variables and that accounted for 51% of the variance. Women loaded primarily on negative factors (failure, loss of control, snakes-insects), men primarily on positive factors (magic-myth, alien life). Results support the concept of typical dream themes as consistent over time, region and gender and as reflecting the influence of fundamental dream dimensions that may be influenced by sociocultural, personality, cognitive or physiological factors.