Attachment styles and quantitative and qualitative aspects of dream's recall

Objectives. The aim of the current study is the assessment of the relationship between attachment style and, respectively, qualitative and quantitative aspects of dream mentation. In fact, recent findings pointed to a better dream recall in "preoccupied" subjects as compared to the other ones, consisting of a higher word count in dream reports. Methods. Four groups often female subjects were selected from an original sample of 480 subjects, according to their attachment style as assessed by The Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) e by the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ). The transcriptions of their audio-recorded dream reports upon 14 consecutive morning awakenings were compared with regard to length and emotional content. Self-ratings obtained by a sleep and dream diary were further considered to assess between-group differences in dream recall frequency, and in its emotional valence, vividness and bizarreness. The same dependent measures were also correlated to the scores to the scales of ASQ. Results. The between-group comparisons only showed a better sleep quality in the "Secure" group as compared to the other attachment groups. More interestingly, the correlations between the ASQ scores and the dream recall measures pointed to a significant negative relation between Discomfort with Closeness and, respectively, self-rated dream report length and self-rated dream report vividness. Furthermore, a significant negative correlation between Confidence and the total number of negative emotions in the dream reports was found. Conclusions. The results point to a relationship between the attachment style and some features of dream experience; however, complexity of factors affecting dream recall recommends further studies that should use a multivariate approach.