Laboratory sleep patterns and dream content of type A and B scoring college students.

The suggestion that there may be a discrepancy between subjective and objective measures of sleep led us to explore the sleep and dreams of 7 Type A and 7 Type B scorers in our laboratory over a three-night period. In earlier studies, Type A scorers had indicated that their sleep was somewhat more disturbed and their dream content generally more active and negative in tone than that of Type B scorers. However, in this study the only differences were that Type A scorers had a greater number of body movements and greater dream recall than did Type B scorers. These results seem to indicate that the impression Type A scorers have of the quality of their sleep and dreams may be a function of their waking life-style.