Examining the dreams of Canadian soldiers with content analysis and the Storytelling Method of dream interpretation

The current study both supports and extends previous research on the content and discovery of Canadian males' dreams to the dreams of Canadian soldiers. Participants included 25 Canadian male soldiers with operational experience in Afghanistan as well as an age and gender matched control group of 25 Canadian male civilians. Discovery or meaning from the dream was assessed via The Storytelling Method of dream interpretation (DeCicco, 2006). Both dream content and discovery were scored using the Hall and Van de Castle (1966) guidelines for content analysis. There were many significant relationships among content and discovery categories for both soldiers and the control group of civilians. Also, many significant differences were found between soldiers and civilians when examining both dream content and discovery. Both groups had dream imagery and discovery that support the continuity hypothesis in relevant and meaningful ways and specifically relating to their waking life. As expected, soldiers had more dream imagery and discovery relating to war, soldiers, and their experiences overseas compared to civilians. Furthermore, the predictive value of dreams was demonstrated as certain dream content categories predicted categories of discovery for both soldiers and civilians. Limitations as well as directions for future research with the military are discussed.