Alexithymia and aspects of dreaming: Differential associations of alexithymia facets with dream variables

Research on aspects of dreaming associated with alexithymia has yielded mixed results. The present study recruited a young adult online sample of 577 participants who completed validated indices of alexithymia, emotion suppression, negative moods, and eight aspects of dreaming, with a focus on evalu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of psychology 2024-02, Vol.59 (1), p.132-142
Main Authors: Lyvers, Michael, Robinson, Morgana, Watt, Bruce, Thorberg, Fred Arne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect
Affective Symptoms - psychology
Alcohol
Alcohol use
Alexithymia
Creativity
Dreaming
Dreams
Dreams - psychology
Emotion
Emotional regulation
Emotionality
Emotions
Humans
Psychological distress
Stress
Suppression
Usefulness
Young Adult
Young adults
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Summary:Research on aspects of dreaming associated with alexithymia has yielded mixed results. The present study recruited a young adult online sample of 577 participants who completed validated indices of alexithymia, emotion suppression, negative moods, and eight aspects of dreaming, with a focus on evaluating a counterintuitive previous finding that alexithymia and two of its core facets were associated with greater self‐reported typical emotional intensity of dreams. Total alexithymia and facet scores showed differential relationships to aspects of dreaming including dream recall frequency, emotionality, meaningfulness, nightmare frequency, nightmare distress, usefulness of dreams in problem‐solving and creativity, and learning about oneself through dreams. Planned hierarchical regression controlling for demographics, alcohol use, and dream recall frequency indicated that the difficulties identifying feelings (DIF) facet of alexithymia was a significant positive predictor of dream emotionality, whereas the externally oriented thinking (EOT) facet was a significant negative predictor. Stress, but not emotion suppression, mediated the positive relationship between DIF and dream emotionality. The likely role of dream emotionality in higher ratings of nightmare distress, dream meaningfulness, and learning about oneself through dreams among those with higher DIF scores is noted, along with other findings and the strengths and limitations of the study.
ISSN:0020-7594
1464-066X
DOI:10.1002/ijop.12956