Work-life balance in dreams: Frequency and emotional tone of work-related and hobby-related dreams.

As dreams reflect waking life, the so-called continuity hypothesis of dreaming, the literature showing that work-related stress affects dreams negatively is very plausible. As in waking life, hobbies are an important component in the work-life balance. In the present study, the work-life balance in dreams was studied. Overall, 1695 persons (960 women, 735 men; mean age: 53.84 ± 13.99 years) participated in an online survey entitled "Everyday life and dreams". The data collected refer to the pre-pandemic period. The findings indicate that hobby-related dreams are more frequent in persons who often engage in their hobbies, supporting the notion of a thematic continuity. As expected, the emotional tone of hobby-related dreams was more positive compared with dreams in general and work-related dreams in particular. Interestingly, the emotional valence of hobby-related dreams was related to the valence of general emotionality towards work in waking life, supporting the idea of an emotional continuity between waking and dreaming. The work-life balance in dreams could be defined as the difference of the percentages of work-related and hobby-related dreams; it is linked to work-related stress and the hobby frequency, factors similar to those that shift the work-life balance in waking life toward the "work" end of the spectrum.

Work-Related Dreams: An Online Survey.

Professional work is an integral part of modern life. According to the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, which states that dreams reflect waking life, work-related dreams should be quite common. As most dream content analytic studies are carried out in student samples, the topic of work in dreams is understudied. A few small studies indicate that the stress levels associated with the job are especially reflected in work-related dreams. Here, a total of 1695 people (960 women, 735 men) completed an online survey that included questions about the estimated percentage of work-related dreams, the overall emotional tone of work-related dreams, and waking-life experiences related to their current job situation (working or not working). The findings indicate that every fifth dream is related to current or previous work. Individuals who are working dreamed more often about work, with jobs that are experienced as being more stressful being more likely to affect dream content. The emotional tone of work-related dreams was related to stress and the emotions related to work in waking life. Overall, the findings demonstrate that professional life has a profound effect on dreaming in many individuals-even after years. The next steps would be to study the dream content of work-related dreams and relate these contents to specific characteristics about the jobs, e.g., professional field, hierarchical position and autonomy, etc.