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J Camosun Psyc Res. (2021). Vol. 3(1), pp. 111-119.
Submitted Fall 2020; accepted July 2021.

What Factors Make Us Dream?
Authors: Jared Robertson* and Ingrid Ringdahl
Supervising Instructor & Assistant: Michael Pollock and Kristina Andrew, Psyc 110
(“Experimental Psychology”)
Department of Psychology, Camosun College, 3100 Foul Bay Road, Victoria, BC, Canada V8P 5J2
*Corresponding author email: jaredrobertson0617@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
In this paper we sought to understand which internal and external factors influence our
dreams. Past research has shown that environmental factors influence our dream contents, our
belief and experiences with the paranormal is a factor behind lucid dreaming, and distress while
conscious is a factor that leads to nightmares and sleep paralysis. In our correlational study, we
tested the strength of these relationships by examining naturalistic daily changes in their
variables longitudinally over a two-week period. The participants kept a dream journal and rated
the variables and outcomes on one-to-five Likert scales every morning for two weeks. Our study
found that paranormal experiences were strongly correlated with controllability/frequency of
dreams, that there was a strong correlation between stress and sleep paralysis, but that the
correlation between environmental exposure to activities and their representation in dream
content was insignificant.
1. Introduction
1.1 Research Problem
The internal and external factors that
influence us on how and why we dream are
not completely understood. What is the
influence behind dreaming in humans? Do
our paranormal beliefs/experiences affect
our ability and frequency to lucid dream?
What causes sleep paralysis? It is important
to solve these problems because dreaming
affects us all.
1.2 Literature Review
Paranormal experience is directly
correlated with the ability to lucid dream. In
the study led by Drinkwater, Dagnall, and

Denovan (2020), a group of 455
participants, each with experience in lucid
dreaming, assessed their frequency and
control of lucid dreaming on a 1 to 8 Likert
scale. The experiment determined that there
was a connection between paranormal
experiences and lucid dreaming, but it is
mentioned that this connection is likely due
to the openness of the participants to lucid
dreaming. It was also found that the
participants who experienced auditory and
visual hallucinations more often than others,
were also more likely to experience lucid
dreams more frequently. In this study,
auditory and visual hallucinations were
found to serve as a “significant positive
predictor of lucid dreaming.” Contrary to
popular belief, it is addressed in this study
that paranormal beliefs are not actually a
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strong influence behind lucid dreams. In
fact, it was mentioned in this study that the
link between paranormal belief and lucid
dreaming was found to be fairly weak.
Environmental factors have a large
impact on the significance and contents of
dreams. In the study led by Domhoff and
Schneider (2020), dream journals from two
participants, Izzy and Jasmine, were
compared. The most frequently recorded
characters in dreams were primarily the
mothers of the participants. Izzy lived
exclusively with her mother throughout the
dream series, and she claims that the person
who she thought of most frequently in her
waking-life was her mother. Jasmine also
had a close relationship with her mother
during the dream series, and as someone
who is partially blind, she relied on her mom
heavily. It is mentioned in the study that
Jasmine’s mom is “the most important
person in her life.” Of all Izzy’s dream
reports, 34.9% included her mother; of
Jasmine’s reports, a substantial percentage
of 55.6% included her own mother. In
addition to the frequency of family members
in both dream reports, general interests,
daily thoughts and various fantasies played a
large role in contributing to the contents of
the dreams. For example, in the reports
listed by both participants, Izzy’s interests in
visual media and horror depictions were
recorded throughout the reports, as well as
Jasmine’s passion for music that could
account for many of her dream reports.
These results may explain the crucial role of
environmental factors in the importance and
forming of our dreams.
Distress while conscious can
influence dreams and nightmares and even
lead to sleep paralysis. In the 2007 study
conducted by Otsuka et al. (2017), data was
collected from 8099 adults across Japan. The
sample for the survey was asked to state
whether or not they had “been awakened by

a nightmare during the previous month” and
whether they had experienced sleep
paralysis in the previous month (Otsuka et
al. 2017). Other variables including the
statuses of sleep duration, daytime
sleepiness, distress, smoking, age, difficulty
maintaining sleep, were recorded. Only 2%
of the sample claimed to have recently
suffered from sleep paralysis, and of that
percentage, the study suggests that their
sleep paralysis was “correlated with
distress.” It was also noted that a majority of
the participants who suffered from sleep
paralysis, both men and women, were
between 20 and 30 years old. In addition, it
was found in this study that although
smoking had no association with
nightmares, it did influence the presence of
sleep paralysis. These results may
demonstrate how disruptions in sleep and
stress in waking life may be the causes
behind sleep paralysis.
1.3 Hypotheses
Based on the literature review above, we
predicted the following hypotheses:
 Hypothesis #1: If experiences with
paranormal forces increase, then the
frequency and ability to lucid dream will
also increase.
 Hypothesis #2: If exposure to the
environment is increased, then the
influences that guide dreams will also
increase.
 Hypothesis #3: If real-life stress and
trauma increase, then the frequency and
severity of sleep paralysis will also
increase.
2. Methods
2.1 Participants
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The two authors of this paper served as
the participants in its studies. The
participants are both 19 years of age and
included a male and female. The participants
were both undergraduate students at
Camosun College who completed the
current studies as an assignment for Psyc
110 (“experimental psychology”) and were
grouped together due to their mutual interest
in dreams. One of the authors is a frequent
lucid dreamer, whereas the other author had
never lucid dreamt before this study.
2.2 Materials and Procedure
We performed a correlational study to
test concurrently all of our hypotheses by
examining naturalistic daily changes in their
variables longitudinally. Each participant
kept a study journal with them at all times
over this study’s two-week period in order to
record self-observations of the following
three variables: (1) paranormal experience,
(2) environmental influences, (3) distress in
waking-life, (4) dream contents and
frequency.
The participants judged their experience
with paranormal activity on a 1 to 100 Likert
scale over a two-week period. The higher on
the scale you go the more experience that
day you had with “unexplainable
occurrences”, with 1 being a normal day,
nothing out of the ordinary, and 100 would
be a day with an extreme abundance of
unexplainable occurrences.
A separate 1 to 100 scale was used to
measure dream abundance, with 1 being
blank to very limited dreams and 100 being
a fully controlled lucid dream. This data was
taken over a two-week period, with data of
the previous night’s sleep being recorded the
next morning.
The participants made notes of daily
environmental exposure by counting their
daily activities and social interactions over a

two-week period. A higher number of
activities indicated a variety of
environmental influences: travelling, social
interactions, activities out of the ordinary,
etc. The lower side of the scale indicated
fewer environmental exposures: not leaving
the house, no interactions with others, etc.
In a dream journal, the participants
measured the content and frequency of their
dreams on a 1 to 100 scale, over a two-week
period. Lower values on the scale indicate
blank or very few dreams, and 100 indicates
many dreams with a variety of contents.
This data was collected each morning over
the two-week period, to recall the dreams of
the previous night.
On a 1 to 100 Likert scale, the
participants noted their experiences with
daily stress and trauma over a two-week
period. Lower values on the scale indicate
little or no stress: feeling happy, no
upsetting experiences, no anxiety, etc.
Higher values on the scale indicate more
stress or trauma, including experiences of
anxiety, fear, pain, depression, etc.
The participants kept a dream journal and
recorded the frequency and severity of
potential sleep paralysis on a 1 to 100 scale,
over a two-week period. To measure sleep
paralysis, a 1 on this scale indicates zero
experiences with sleep paralysis, and 100
indicates severe sleep paralysis. To measure
sleep paralysis daily, we also included the
inability to get out of bed in the morning and
included the difficulty levels of this
numerically on the 1 to 100 scale. This data
was collected each morning over the twoweek period, to best recall the previous
night.
To assess the strength and statistical
significance of associations between
variables predicted by our three hypotheses,
we performed Pearson product moment
correlations of their predictor variables
(paranormal beliefs, environmental
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influences and distress in waking-life) with
their outcome variable (dream contents and
frequency). For Hypothesis #1, we
correlated the number of experiences with
paranormal forces and tracked their ability
and frequency of having lucid dreams. To
test Hypothesis #2, we counted daily
activities and interactions and tracked the
dream frequency and variety of dream
content that followed. To test Hypothesis #3,
we recorded daily stress on a 1-100 scale
and tracked the severity of sleep paralysis
that followed. We performed all of the
above correlations separately for each
participant as well as using data pooled
across all of the participants. For the
correlations using pooled data, in addition to
using the raw data, we also performed
correlations after we had first transformed
the data from each participant into z-scores
in order to standardize differences in
averages and variability seen between the
participants in their data and thus make them
more comparable. A correlation coefficient
was considered statistically significant if the
probability of its random occurrence (p) was
< 05 (i.e. less than 5% of the time expected
by chance alone).
3. Results
The study showed that the correlation of
paranormal beliefs involved with
controllability and frequency of dreams was
significant, that the correlation between
stress/trauma and sleep paralysis was
significant, but that the relationship between
environmental exposure and dream
frequency/variety proved insignificant (see
Table 1). The association of paranormal
experiences with controllability of dreams
was significant using the pooled
standardized data (r = 0.67, p = 4.26E-05;
see Figure 1) and using the pooled raw data
(r = 0.86, p = 1.016E-10). The association of

paranormal experience with lucid dreaming
was significant for both Participant #1 and
Participant #2. The association of stress with
sleep paralysis was significant using the
pooled standardized data (r = 0.42, p =
0.026418; see Figure 2). The individual data
suggests a strong correlation between stress
and sleep paralysis for Participant #1 but not
for Participant #2. The correlation between
daily environmental influences and dream
contents proved to be insignificant using the
pooled raw data (r = 0.28, p = 0.1575088;
see Figure 3) but the correlation was
significant using the pooled standardized
data (r = 0.66, p =7.349E-05). The
association of environmental factors with
dream frequency was significant for
Participant #2 but not for Participant #1.
Based on the results of our pooled
standardized data, it is evident that the
strongest correlation was between
paranormal experience and lucid dreaming,
with the highest r-value of 0.67.
4. Discussion
4.1 Summary of Results
We tested three hypotheses: first, the
association between paranormal experience
and lucid dreaming; secondly, the
association between environmental exposure
and its recurrence in dream content; and
finally, the association between
trauma/stress and sleep paralysis. Our results
supported all three of our hypotheses.
4.2 Relation of Results to Past Research
The strong correlation we found between
daily stress and trauma and the frequency
and severity of sleep paralysis is persistent
with past research. In the study led by
Otsuka et al. (2018), it was found that sleep
paralysis was correlated with distress. In our
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own research, we found that the severity of
stress impacted the severity of sleep
paralysis. The similarity between both
conclusions was that real-life stress and
trauma influence the severity of sleep
paralysis.
The ability of our correlational study to
predict dream frequency and controllability
is related to paranormal experiences and
beliefs shown in past research Drinkwater,
Dagnall, and Denovan (2020). It was
reported that participants’ experience with
the paranormal affected their sleep and their
ability to lucid dream. As shown in our
paper, paranormal experiences on a day-today basis were associated with the ability to
lucid dream. This common outcome
between studies, using two different
methods, suggests a link of paranormal
belief and our ability to have lucid dreams.
Our correlational study did not confirm
the predicted association of environmental
factors and dream content. In the study led
by Domhoff et al. (2020), it was found that
daily interactions influenced dream contents.

References
Domhoff, G. W., & Schneider, A. (2020).
From adolescence to young adulthood in
two dream series: The consistency and
continuity of characters and major
personal interests. Dreaming, 30(2), 140–
161. https://doiorg.libsecure.camosun.bc.ca:2443/10.103
7/drm0000133
Drinkwater, K. G., Denovan, A., & Dagnall,
N. (2020). Lucid dreaming, nightmares,
and sleep paralysis: associations with
reality testing deficits and paranormal
experience/belief. Frontiers in
Psychology, 11, 471. https://doiorg.libsecure.camosun.bc.ca:2443/10.338
9/fpsyg.2020.00471
Otsuka, Y., Kaneita, Y., Nakagome, S., Jike,
M., Itani, O., & Ohida, T. (2018).
Nightmares and sleep paralysis among
the general Japanese population: A
nationwide representative survey. Sleep
and Biological Rhythms, 16(2), 187–195.
https://doiorg.libsecure.camosun.bc.ca:2443/10.100
7/s41105-017-0138-2

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Table 1
Correlation coefficient (r) values, with number of daily trials (n) per correlation in brackets.

Variables correlated

Participant #1

Participant #2

Pooled
raw data

Pooled standardized
data

Paranormal
experience & dream
controllability and
frequency

0.62(14)*

0.73(14)*

0.86(28)*

0.67(28)*

Stress/trauma &
Sleep Paralysis

0.55(14)*

0.28(14)

0.82(28)*

0.42(28)*

Environmental
exposure & Dream
frequency

0.48(14)

0.84(14)*

0.28(28)

0.66(28)*

* p < .05.

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Figure 1
Scatterplot of paranormal beliefs/experiences and controllability/frequency of dreams using
pooled standardized data across participants.

Marker color indicates which participant data is from: red = participant #1, orange = participant
#2. Some data might not be visible in the figure due to overlapping markers.

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Figure 2
Scatterplot of stress/trauma and sleep paralysis using pooled standardized data across
participants.

Marker color indicates which participant data is from: red = participant #1, orange = participant
#2. Some data might not be visible in the figure due to overlapping markers.

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Figure 3
Scatterplot of environmental exposure and dream frequency using pooled standardized data
across participants.

Marker color indicates which participant data is from: red = participant #1, orange = participant
#2. Some data might not be visible in the figure due to overlapping markers.

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