REPORTED ASSOCIATION OF STRESS AND DREAMING - COMMUNITY BACKGROUND LEVELS AND CHANGES WITH DISASTER (HURRICANE INIKI)

A questionnaire on dreaming was distributed to a heterogeneous populat ion of a Family Practice Clinic (N = 265). Respondents were asked how frequently they remembered their dreams, and described them to others, as well as a series of questions assessing the extent to which stress was associated with dreaming. Forty percent of respondents reported t heir dreaming to be associated with stress some of the time. Responses were analyzed for age, race and gender variation. Stress associated d reaming was found to decrease with advancing age. Women reported dream ing to be associated with stress to a significantly greater extent tha n men. No significant racial/ethnic variation was found in this sample . lit the two months following a generalized disaster (Hurricane Iniki ) which affected the study population, the questionnaire was again dis tributed (N = 22). Respondents in this sample reported dreams to be as sociated with stress, and dreams related to stressful experience to a significantly greater extent than the original sample. These results i ndicate that stressful life events may affect dreaming, especially amo ng younger individuals and women, and indicate that survey methods can be useful in studying the association of stress and dreaming.