Dream Experiences as a Method of Influencing Behavior Change

A dream can impact a person so profoundly that it may permanently alter his or
her life, beliefs, or behaviour. Most of the time, these gifts of insight happen to only a
rare few and usually occur without intention. These life-altering dreams are spontaneous
and unpredictable. While most studies focus on the content or meaning of dreams after
they occur, this study explores the possibility of using dreams to influence behavioural
changes in the waking world. This study examined three of the dream elements
associated with profound dreams that could potentially be used to develop a systematic
method of using dreams to create behavioural changes. The three elements are (a)
Emotion: the ability to generate high-emotion states within a dream; (b) Narrative: the
formation of narratives within a dream; and (c) Reality: the ability of the dreamer to
perceive and accept the dream as reality.