An Analysis of Laypeople’s Beliefs Regarding the Origins of Their Worst Nightmare
Nightmares, usually defined as disturbing dreams that awaken the sleeper, are common in the general population. While many studies have examined the aetiological and psychological correlates of nightmares, very few have focused on laypeople’s conceptions of the underlying causes of their own nightmares. The first goal of the present study was to address the paucity of findings with regards to this question by investigating laypeople’s causal beliefs about their worst nightmare experience. A secondary goal was to examine whether these beliefs varied as a function of participants’ gender, age of nightmare occurrence, and recurrence of the nightmare itself. Five hundred and eighty-three adult participants were surveyed with a sleep and dream questionnaire that included an item asking participants to detail the factors they believed were at the origin of their worst nightmare. Responses were categorized according to a coding protocol. The results showed that : 1) The three most frequently reported categories for explaining the occurrence of people’s worst nightmare were interpersonal relationships, attributions of unknown or nonexistent causality, and mediums of entertainment; 2) Women were more likely than men to attribute their worst nightmare to factors related to interpersonal relationships; 3) Some attributions for people’s worst nightmares varied depending on whether the worst nightmare had occurred during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood; and 4) Worst nightmares that were recurrent in nature were more likely to be attributed to categories pertaining to specific phobias and negative emotions than non-recurrent worst nightmares. Interestingly, many of the lay beliefs endorsed in the present study were in line with empirical and theoretical studies on the causes of nightmares and also often paralleled waking preoccupations and pastimes that have been found to differ as a function of gender and stages of human development (i.e., infancy, adolescence, and adulthood).
Worst nightmare origins Lay beliefs Gender Age of occurrence Recurrence Clinical psychology