Age differences in dreams. II: Distortion and other variables.

Age-related change in manifest dream content was assessed in dreams recalled from REM sleep by fifty-eight men aged twenty-seven to sixty-four and in dreams recalled from sleep at home. There was evidence of a small-age-related decline in dream distortion (bizarreness) and family-related content, with family-related content most prominent from ages thirty-five to fifty-five. Overall the effect of increasing age on dream content is slight.