Sexual dream experiencing and personality disorder functioning styles in frequent sexual dreamers

Abstract

Background: Sex-related disturbance including sexual dreams contributes to psychiatric disorders, but whether personality disorder functioning styles are linked with sexual dreams especially in frequent dreamers remains unsettled SUBJECTS AND METHODS: One hundred and seventy one healthy volunteers (controls) and 81 frequent sexual dreamers (fsDreamers) were invited to answer the Sexual Dream Experience Questionnaire (SDEQ) and the Parker Personality Measure (PERM).

Results: Compared to controls, fsDreamers scored significantly higher on SDEQ Joyfulness, Familiarity, Bizarreness and the annual frequency, and on all PERM styles except Schizoid and Obsessive-Compulsive. Sexual dream contents were associated with Borderline, Histrionic and Narcissistic styles in controls, and with Paranoid, Schizotypal, Borderline, Histrionic, Avoidant, and Passive-Aggressive styles in fsDreamers.

Conclusions: Personality involvement in etiology of sexual dreams has been illustrated by the elevated sexual experience and personality disorder functioning style scores and their prominent inter-correlations, especially in frequent sexual dreamers.