Dream research is currently dominated by two theories (King, 2006): the compensatory theory (Jung, 1916/1960) and the continuity hypothesis (Hall & Nordby, 1972). Carl Jung was the first to describe a compensatory or complementary role of dreams in 1916, suggesting that dreams express aspects of the personality not fully developed in the waking day (Domhoff, 2000). Recently, there has been only minimal support for Jung’s (1916/1960) theory (e.g., Bell & Cook, 1998; De Koninck & Sirois-Berliss, 1978; Gates, 1997), which in most cases has been contradicted by recent dream research (Domhoff, 1996, 2001, 2003; Domino, 1976).

For instance, Domhoff (1999) notes that while the compensatory theory suggests that extroverted individuals would have a higher frequency of introspective dreams, they, in fact, have dreams which parallel their outgoing, extroverted nature. Under the premise of Jung’s (1916/1960) theory, one would also expect blind individuals to have more visual dream content in order to compensate for their sensory setback. However, Hurovitz, Dunn, Domhoff, and Fiss (1999) found that the dream reports of blind adults contained no visual imagery, while other senses were referenced quite frequently. According to Domhoff (2003), subtle forms of compensation may be common in dreams, yet they may be too subtle to be detected by current research methods.

The accurate, dream-based analysis of a convicted child molester named Norman (Bell & Hall, 1971) led Calvin Hall to adopt the term “continuity hypothesis,” which proposed that dreams reflect waking life rather than compensate for it (Hall & Nordby, 1972). Since then, a great deal of research has continued to support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming (Domhoff, 1996, 2001, 2003). Waking life conflicts have been shown to be incorporated into nightmares (Patrick & Durndell, 2004) and a preliminary study on season-related dream content found that winter-related dream themes were more often reported in the winter (Schredl, 2003). Schredl and Hofmann (2003) found that dream activities such as talking with friends and driving a car were related to the amount of time spent at these activities during the waking state. A similar study revealed that the amount of waking time spent playing sports and reading was directly related to the frequency of related dream content (Schredl, 2006). There is also an assortment of evidence supporting continuity between dreams and both physical health and mood (e.g., Beck & Ward, 1961; Gross & Lavie, 1994; Hauri, 1976; Mitchell, 1923; Pesant & Zadra, 2006; Schredl & Engelhardt, 2001; Smith, 1984).