Music in dreams: Exploring the frequency and emotional dimension of music-related dreams among music professionals

Music and dreams have been recurring and meaningful themes throughout human history. Empirical research on the topic of music in dreams is limited, particularly when it comes to studies involving participants with professional musical training. In this study, 37 music professionals participated, reporting a total of 151 dreams in a 14-day dream diary and completing questionnaires to assess their retrospectively estimated music dream frequency, daily musical activities, and music-related stress. We found high percentages of music-related dreams (around 50%), reflecting musicians’ daily engagement with music. As expected, the frequency of music dreams in the musician group was significantly higher than that of non-musician control samples, supporting the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. However, contrary to our expectations, no direct relationship was found between the extent of daily musical activities and the frequency of music-related dreams. In addition, negative emotions in music dreams may have reflected music-related stress in waking life. Future research could investigate the effects of music-related stress on dream content and examine whether stress-reduction interventions can influence the frequency and nature of negative dream experiences in musicians.