Descriptive Evidence of Dreams
- In 15% of the dreams, the dreamer was by himself.
- In the remaining dreams, 45% of the people other than the dreamer were strangers to the dreamer.
- 37% were friends or acquaintances.
- 19% were relatives.
- Only 1% of the people in the dreams were public figures.
- Young people tended to dream more about their peers.
- Older people dream more about their families.
- Children dreamed about their parents.
- Parents dreamed about the children.
- Wives dreamed about their husbands and vice versa.
- Plots tended toward more play than work, more traveling then staying in the same place, more aggressive than friendly ones.
- Many of the dreams appear to concern gratification, particularly of sexual and aggressive impulses.
- Apprehension was the dominant emotion in 40% of the reported dreams.
- Anger, excitement, and happiness each occurred in 18% of the dreams.
- Color was reported in 29% of the 3,000 dreams for which this question was asked.
- Colors seem to be unpredictably random in dreams, though
apparently some people always dream in color and others never do so.
Investigator: CS Hall
Source, date: "What people dream about," 1951
Location: Western Reserve University
Subjects: Educated adults