Although emotions are a natural component of dream experiences, a lack of consensus prevails in research literature concerning the specific characteristics of emotional dream experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate if and to what extent this lack of convergence among studies stems from whether dream emotions are self- or externally rated - forty-four healthy participants (16 males and 28 females; mean age = 26.93, range = 19 - 40) kept a home dream diary for three consecutive weeks, and daily rated their emotional experiences in dreams with the Swedish modified Differential Emotions Scale (smDES; Fredrickson, 2013). Two external judges rated emotions in the same 552 home dream reports using the same scale. Results obtained with the two methods differed in that the self-ratings, compared to external ratings, revealed: (a) more emotional dreams; (b) more positive than negative emotions per dream (with the ratio being relatively balanced); (c) a relatively more balanced proportion of positive and negative emotions, while the external ratings revealed more negative than positive emotions per dream. The results suggest that this is mostly due to the underrepresentation of positive emotions with external ratings. Thus, the results continue to question the extent of convergence between self- and external ratings when investigating emotional dream contents, and bring to attention the importance of methodological aspects when investigating dream emotions.

Emotions are a central part of our lives and the ability to effectively regulate them is central to well-being. Although a lot of research shows the beneficial role of sleep on emotional reactivity and regulation, little is known about how dream emotions relate to emotional reactivity and regulation. The current study investigated how dreams with high vs low levels of self-rated negative dream affect related to next-day waking emotional reactivity and regulation. Participants kept a home dream diary until reporting dreams on five days. They also reported dream and wake emotions and performed an online emotional reactivity and regulation task. Opposing predictions were derived from the continuity hypothesis and from the emotion regulation theories of dreaming. However, no significant differences were found between emotional reactivity and regulation on mornings following dreams with high vs low negative affect. Thus, no support was provided for the direct predictions made from the two theories. Nevertheless, morning wake affect differed significantly as a function of dream emotions. Specifically, participants reported significantly higher levels of positive emotions on mornings after a dream low, rather than high, in negative affect. Similarly, wake morning negative affect was higher following dreams high, rather than low, in negative affect. Thus, the results support a form of affective continuity between dreams and morning wakefulness.