Affective experiences occur across the wake-sleep cycle—from active wakefulness to resting wakefulness (i.e., mind-wandering) to sleep (i.e., dreaming). Yet, we know little about the dynamics of affect across these states. We compared the affective ratings of waking, mind-wandering, and dream episodes. Results showed that mind-wandering was more positively valenced than dreaming, and that both mind-wandering and dreaming were more negatively valenced than active wakefulness. We also compared participants’ self-ratings of affect with external ratings of affect (i.e., analysis of affect in verbal reports). With self-ratings all episodes were predominated by positive affect. However, the affective valence of reports changed from positively valenced waking reports to affectively balanced mind-wandering reports to negatively valenced dream reports. These findings show that (1) the positivity bias characteristic to waking experiences decreases across the wake-sleep continuum, and (2) conclusions regarding affective experiences depend on whether self-ratings or verbal reports describing these experiences are analysed.
CC BY 4.0
Available online 19 August 2021
"This work was supported by research grants from the International Association for the Study of Dreams and Dream Science Foundation as well as from the Alfred Kordelin Foundation (to P.S.). Data collection I was supported by research grant from the Academy of Finland research program HUMAN MIND [grant number 266434]. Data collection II was supported by the Turku University foundation and the Emil Aaltonen foundation"