The Continuity Between Waking-Life Musical Activities and Music Dreams

摘要

As expressed in anecdotal reports, dreams have provided inspiration to both classical and popular musicians. According to the continuity hypothesis, engaging in music activities in the daytime should be related to the occurrence of music dreams. One-hundred and 44 participants (mostly psychology students, music students, and choir members) were asked to complete questionnaires about music-related waking-life activities and music in dreams. As expected, the amount of time invested in music activities during the day is directly related to the percentage of music dreams, thereby confirming the continuity hypothesis. Also, composing music in waking-life is related to a higher frequency of dreams with new music. Due to possible recall biases regarding retrospective measures for eliciting the percentage of music dreams, future research should follow up this study by using dream diaries in larger samples.