Bodily Self-Consciousness in Dreams Questionnaire (BSD-Q) and its relation to waking dissociative experiences.

Abstract

According to virtual reality dream theory , while dreaming, brains generate a dream world similar to a virtual reality environment, and this world uses the same predictive self/world modeling capacity as that used during wakefulness. The theory proposes that phenomenology of dreaming experience is based on the waking experience, a view widely accepted by dream researchers. In the current research, we argued that individuals with different intensities of dissociative experiences during waking, will report corresponding differences in the profoundness of sensory modality experiences, such as touching in dreams. To test this hypothesis, first, we developed a novel Bodily Self-Consciousness in Dreams Questionnaire, that was completed by 414 participants. The questionnaire measured the intensity of different sensory modality experiences in past dreams. The results showed that a four-factor solution explains 64% of the total variance, and yielded sufficient reliability with McDonald's v ranging from .62 to .84, and Cronbach's a ranged from .61 to .84. Along with the Bodily Self-Consciousness in Dreams Questionnaire, we administered the Dissociation Questionnaire (Vanderlinden et al., 1993), which showed a significant positive correlation between the bodily self-consciousness in dreams and dissociative experiences during waking. In conclusion, the results showed that all of the modalities pertain to bodily self-consciousness in dreams and are significantly correlated with waking state dissociative experiences.

Dreams share phenomenological similarities with task-unrelated thoughts and relate to variation in trait rumination and COVID-19 concern

“…Prior studies have shown significant correlations when assessing characteristics of dreams with trait questionnaires and morning dream diaries within the same participants, especially in individuals who do not have poor dream recall 106 , 108 , 109 . Additionally, a number of studies have shown predictive validities in the use of trait dream questionnaires to predict individual differences in diverse outcomes such as aphantasia, olfactory experiences, and bodily self-consciouness 110 – 112 . Despite the limitations noted above, sampling dream content using a nightly awakening procedure would yield more accurate insights into the content of the dream itself, and would also make it feasible to compare dream content across different stages of sleep, an important feature of some theories of dreaming such as the NEXTUP theory 3 .…”