Social network in the 2015 dreams of a male dreamer

Abstract

Social interactions play an important role in dreams and, thus, the question arises whether the characteristics of the dream social network based on co-occurrence of persons within dreams is comparable with the characteristics of waking-life social networks. The present analysis included 696 dreams reported by a male dreamer in the course of one year. Overall, the findings support the notion that a dream social network shows the characteristics of a small world network (small average distances, high clustering), and the power low distribution of co-occurrences – similar to waking-life social networks. The clustering was most obvious for the core family members of the dreamer; they are more likely to co-occur than occur with persons of other social areas. More studies are needed to link inter-individual differences within the properties of the dream social network to differences in the current and former waking-life social networks of the dreamer.