Science News Archive

What you Read Affects What you Dream About

Psychologist Dr. Mark Blagrove asked 10,000 library users about their dreams, with startling results. Readers of fantasy novels, like The Lord of The Rings, have more nightmares, those who prefer romantic novels report more emotionally-intense dreams, and people who read fiction are more likely to have bizarre dreams and remember them afterwards, compared with people who don't read. Age also seems to play a role; children were 3 times more likely to have bad dreams if they enjoyed horror stories, whilst older people dream less and have fewer nightmares. (www.frontiers4libraries dotorg dotuk)

20th Jul 2002