Elder relatives in waking life correlated with both elder relatives in dreams and animals in dreams

Abstract There are dream metaphors that express waking-life experiences indirectly. Animals in dreams has been speculated to be related to dream metaphors. Here we explored if there was correlation between daily diaries related to elder relatives and animals in dreams. Methods: for one day, 270 participants recorded waking-life experiences in daily diaries before sleeping, and recorded their dreams upon waking. Two external judges rated if there were any content related to elder relatives in both daily diaries and dreams, and rated if both daily diaries and dreams contained content related to animals. Results: the frequency for daily diaries related to elder relatives was 19.6%; the frequency for daily diaries related to animals was 2.6%; the frequency for animals in dreams was 13.7%; the frequency for elder relatives in dreams was 21.5%. The most two frequency animals in dreams were dogs and cats. Recording daily diaries related to elder relatives was correlated with both dreaming about elder relatives and dreaming about animals. In addition, recording daily diaries related to animals was correlated with dreaming about animals. Conclusion: Results supported the continuity hypothesis. In addition, some animals in dreams represented elder relatives in waking life metaphorically.