ABSTRACT
Dreams are experiences as real while dreaming (with the exception of lucid dreams); only after waking up do we know these experiences happened within a dream. Therefore, one would expect that sensory perceptions (temperature, pain, olfaction, taste, etc.) also occur in dreams. Interestingly, explicitly mentioned sensory perceptions are quite rare and – which was surprising – do not or only very rarely replay any experiences the dreamer had had in his waking life. These analyses can also shed light on the question whether a stimulus – e.g., pain in the foot – is incorporated into the dream or whether the pain in the dreamed pain is just part of the dream. An interesting analysis indicated that ice, snow, and hail in dreams decreased in frequency over the years, possibly reflecting the topic of global warming.
