Effects of discussing dreams, and possible extrapolation to artwork

The beneficial effects of discussing dreams are described in the following two papers:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00979/full

and
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00831/full

In these studies dreams were discussed for about 40 minutes and the discussions resulted in high levels of insight about the memory sources of the dream and/or insight about the dreamer's waking life.

​In soon to be published work we are comparing outcomes of such discussions of dreams to discussions of daydreams. Many thanks to the Bial Foundation for funding that work. The results and background rationale for the study were presented at a public event at the Freud Museum, London, on 20th March 2016.

​In all this work the outcomes of considering dreams were assessed just after the discussions.
​
One of the aims of DreamsID is to investigate whether the consideration of a dream and of an artwork based on the dream, has beneficial personal outcomes across many months after the artwork is produced.