The development of scales to measure the experience of self-participation in sleep

Abstract

Recent literature suggests that how the self is represented is a cardinal aspect of the dream experience. A review of studies of phasic-tonic distinctions within rapid eye movement (REM) sleep revealed that increasing self-participation marked awakenings from phasic intervals. Five scales specifically designed to measure absorption in dreaming were compared with three scales previously shown to discriminate phasic from tonic awakenings within REM sleep. Eight reports per night (two stage REM, six stage 2) were collected from each of 20 subjects on 4 baseline nights. Awakenings were controlled for time into REMP and time of night, correcting the methodological flaws of previous studies in this area. Scales developed to measure self-participation were able to discriminate phasic from tonic awakenings better than those already in the literature. Results are discussed in terms of the psychometric properties of the individual scales.