A Research Of The Relationship Between Individual’s Boundaries In The Mind And Dream Experience

Human beings have been full of concern and curiosity about dreams since ancient times,and obviously there is a difference across people’s dream experience,which is reflected in many aspects,such as the quantity of dreams and the vividness of dreams,reflecting the intensity of one’s dream experience.The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between the Boundaries in the Mind and the intensity of dream experience.According to the Contemporary Theory of Dreaming of Earnest Hartmann,one’s mind and brain are more widely and loosely connected when dreaming.And objects and psychological processes in one’s mind is easier to influence or connect with each other when one has thinner boundaries.Thus,the form of mental functioning within people with thinner boundaries is internally consistent with that in dreaming.Therefore,we can assume that one with thinner boundaries should have more intense and significant dream experience.In this paper,two studies were conducted,with each one using different way to evaluate the intensity of dream experience,to verify the relationship between Boundaries in the Mind and the intensity of dream experience.In the first study,participants’ self-assessment was used to report the intensity of subjective dream experience.The survey tool was the Dream Intensity Scale,which access the total dream intensity and its dimensions(Dream Quantity,Dream Vividness,Diffusion and Altered Dream Episodes).Hierarchical linear regression was used to study whether Boundaries in the Mind can independently predict dream intensity and its changes in various dimensions,while controlling demographic variables and attitude toward dreams.The results showed that the thickness of Boundaries in the Mind can predict the total dream intensity and its dimensions(Dream Quantity,Dream Vividness,Diffusion and Altered Dream Episodes)independently.The prediction models including Boundaries in the Mind of each dream experience dimension are significant.While controlling demographic variables and attitude toward dreams,standardized regression coefficients of Boundaries in the Mind were significant and positive,which indicates that the thinner the boundaries,the intenser the subjective dream experience,which is consistent with the research hypothesis.Although the thickness of Boundaries in the Mind affects the one’s dream experience to a certain degree,the contribution of the prediction model to the variance of each dream experience dimension is limited,whichindicates that there are other factors cannot be ignored,which is worth further study.In the second study,for participants’ most recent dream experience,the intensity of the Central Image in dream reports was assessed by two scorers.The existence of the Central Image and its intensity were used as indicators of the intensity of the dream experience.Then,the relationship between the thickness of Boundaries in the Mind and the intensity of the dream experience was verified by group comparison mainly.The results showed that the existence frequency of Central Image in most recent dream report was significantly higher in the “thinner boundaries” group.But for samples having Central Image,there was no significant difference in the average intensity of Central Images between the two groups,which indicates that the thickness of Boundaries in the Mind may only affect the probability of the occurrence of Central Image rather than the intensity.However,the difference of the probability of occurrence of central images across people with different boundary styles has already shown that people with thinner boundaries are more likely to experience bizarre and significant dreams.The two conclusions of this paper are consistent,which reflect the influence of Boundaries in the Mind on dream experience.The thinner one’s Boundaries in the Mind are,the stronger the dream experience is,more specifically,Dream Quantity,Dream Vividness,Diffusion and Altered Dream Episodes are all increased,and the possibility of Central Images emerging in dream content is higher.