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Exploring the Relationship Between Mindfulness in Waking and Lucidity in Dreams

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Exploring the Relationship Between Mindfulness in Waking and Lucidity in Dreams Exploring the relationship between mindfulness in waking and lucidity in dreams A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Robert L. Rider, M.S. in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2012 Mindfulness and Dreaming 2 DEDICATIONS This work is dedicated to my family: To my father, Robert, whose lifetime of hard work gave me the opportunity to pursue my dreams and whose death was the impetus for me to explore them. To my mother, Dolores, whose love has given me the confidence and strength to believe in and love the beauty of my dreams. To my sister, Shannon, whose support has been unwavering, even when dreams turned into nightmares. To my wife, Michel, whose faith, patience, love, and support serves as a living proof that dreams can come true. Finally, to my daughter, Aislin, whose existence is nothing short of the dream of her parents’ love brought to life. Mindfulness and Dreaming 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due first to Mary Spiers, for her mentorship and commitment to my academic and professional development throughout my graduate career. Appreciation and thanks go to the esteemed members of my committee, James Herbert, Jacqueline Kloss, Stephen LaBerge, and Thomas Swirsky-Sacchetti, for their contribution of knowledge and expertise which helped me to bring this project to fruition. I would also like to express my gratitude to Aaron Block, Erik Donovan, and Jamison Langguth for volunteering their time and effort to help with this study. Mindfulness and Dreaming 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 14 Historical Background ................................................................................................................... 14 Sleep Physiology and Phenomenology ........................................................................................ 16 Non-REM Sleep ..................................................................................................................... 17 REM Sleep ............................................................................................................................. 18 Section Summary .................................................................................................................. 20 Dream Neuropsychology .............................................................................................................. 21 REM sleep and Dreaming ..................................................................................................... 24 Section Summary .................................................................................................................. 27 Lucid Dreaming ............................................................................................................................. 28 Physiology ............................................................................................................................. 28 Personality ............................................................................................................................. 32 Cognition ................................................................................................................................ 35 Induction ................................................................................................................................ 36 Section Summary .................................................................................................................. 42 Continuity Theory .......................................................................................................................... 44 Mindfulness and Dreaming.................................................................................................... 47 Mindfulness and Dreaming 5 Section Summary .................................................................................................................. 53 Chapter Summary and Study Overview ....................................................................................... 54 Specific Aims and Hypotheses .............................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER III: METHOD............................................................................................................... 56 Participants ................................................................................................................................... 56 Measures ...................................................................................................................................... 56 Demographics Questionnaire ................................................................................................ 56 Dream Journal ....................................................................................................................... 57 Dream Experiences Survey v. 2 ............................................................................................ 58 Mindful Awareness and Attention Scale ............................................................................... 59 The Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale ..................................................................................... 59 PEBL Neuropsychological Test Battery ................................................................................ 60 Procedures .................................................................................................................................... 67 Part 1: Neuropsychological and Mindfulness Assessment ................................................... 67 Part 2: Dream Journaling and DES-2 ................................................................................... 68 Statistical Analyses ....................................................................................................................... 68 Sample size ........................................................................................................................... 68 Independent Variables .......................................................................................................... 69 Dependent Variables ............................................................................................................. 69 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS ............................................................................................................ 70 Descriptives .................................................................................................................................. 70 Mindfulness measures .......................................................................................................... 70 Neuropsychological measures .............................................................................................. 70 Dream Experiences Survey................................................................................................... 72 Demographics ............................................................................................................................... 74 Results of Hypothesis Testing ...................................................................................................... 76 Mindfulness and Dreaming 6 Specific Aim 1 ........................................................................................................................ 76 Specific Aim 2 ........................................................................................................................ 80 Specific Aim 3 ........................................................................................................................ 82 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................. 83 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................... 85 Theoretical Implications ................................................................................................................ 85 Relationships between waking mindfulness and dreaming .................................................. 85 Relationships between neuropsychological functioning and dreaming ................................ 90 Relationships between self-reported mindfulness and neuropsychological functioning ...... 92 Implications for the Continuity Theory of Dreams ................................................................. 93 Limitations ..................................................................................................................................... 96 Specific Aim 1 ........................................................................................................................ 96 Specific Aim 2
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