New York: Why do our dreams sometimes feel vivid and immersive, while at other times they seem fragmented or difficult to interpret?
A new study conducted by researchers at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca provides new insights into what determines the content of dreams, showing that both individual characteristics and shared life experiences play a key role in shaping what we dream.
The research, published in Communications Psychology, analyzed over 3,700 reports of dream and waking experiences collected from 287 participants aged 18 to 70.
The findings reveal that dream content is not random or chaotic, but instead reflects a complex interplay between personal traits, such as tendency to mind-wander, interest in dreams, and sleep quality, and external events, including large-scale societal experiences like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather than simply replaying waking experiences, dreams appear to reinterpret them. Elements from daily routines, such as work environments, healthcare settings, or education, do not reappear as they are. Instead, they are reorganized into vivid, immersive scenarios, often blending together different contexts and shifting perspectives into unfamiliar landscapes.
“Our findings show that dreams are not just a reflection of past experiences, but a dynamic process shaped by who we are and what we live through,” explains Valentina Elce, researcher at the IMT School and lead author of the paper.
