Alexithymia and dream recall upon spontaneous morning awakening

Abstract

Objective: The issue of a quantitative and qualitative impoverishment of dream activity in alexithymic subjects was assessed by analysis of the 14-day dream reports of two groups of accurately selected alexithymic and nonalexi-thymic subjects. Methods: Ten alexithymic and 10 nonalexithymic women were selected from a larger sample of 160 undergraduate students. The transcriptions of their audio-recorded dream reports on 14 consecutive morning awakenings were compared with regard to their length and emotional content. Self-ratings obtained from sleep and dream diaries were further considered to assess between-groups differences in dream recall frequency and in the emotional valence, vividness, and bizarreness of dreams. Results: Dream recall frequency and mean length of dream reports were lower in alexithymic than in nonalexithymic subjects. There were no significant between-groups differences in emotional valence, vividness, bizarreness, and emotions scored according to the Hall and Van de Castle coding system. Conclusions: The results suggest a general difficulty of alexithymics in accessing (recalling) their dreams. Key words: alexithymia, emotional regulation, dream recall, sleep. ANCOVA analysis of covariance; ANOVA analy-sis of variance; EEVD external emotional valence of dream; IEVD internal emotional valence of dream; REM rapid eye movement; SEM standard error of mean; TAS-20 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale; TNE total number of emotions; TWC total word count