There has always been debate over the content of dreams being able to tell something about a person’s state of mind, however dream researchers have mostly studied dreams of people suffering from various disorders with little being known about the positive side of well being; and well being researchers have been more focussed on happiness and mostly neglecting peace of mind as an important aspect of well being.
Peace of mind is a state of inner harmony and peace traditionally associated with happiness that is rarely measured in well being studies but has always been regarded as central to human flourishing. This study was conducted to address gaps in dream and well being research as well as to investigate how different aspects of waking well being in this first known study of its kind to look at how peace of mind relates to dream content.
Healthy participants filled out questionnaires designed to measure waking ill and well being , and kept daily dream dairies for the following 3 weeks in which to record all their dream and rate emotions experienced during the dreams each morning upon awakening. It was found that individuals with higher levels of peace of mind reported more positive dream emotions and those with higher levels of anxiety reported more negative dream emotions.
If there is to be more understandings of how dream content is related to waking well being more needs to be done than to measure symptoms of mental ill being, well being in its own right should be measured as well according to the researchers, who add aspects typically considered and measured as well being were not related to dream content.
Individuals with higher levels of peace of mind may be able to better regulate emotions in waking and dream states, while the opposite appears to be true for those with higher levels of anxiety; as there seems to be something unique about peace of mind and anxiety according to the researchers.
