Studying Dream Experience Through Dream Reports: Points of Contact Between Dream Research and First-Person Methods in Consciousness Science

In this chapter, we focus on the problem of dream reports at the intersection of dream research, the philosophy of dreaming, and first-person methods in consciousness science. We advance three proposals: (1) that the variability of methods and measures used in dream research influences research results; (2) that best-practice guidelines for the report-based study of experience in sleep (as well as in waking) can nonetheless be identified; and (3) that certain areas of dream research could benefit from more explicitly focusing on phenomenal (vs content or formal) features of dreaming. Drawing from the shared conceptual and methodological ground of dream research and consciousness science, we suggest that investigating the phenomenal features of dreaming could profit from the application of elements of first-person methods in consciousness research. We consider two specific interview methods: descriptive research sampling and micro-phenomenological interviews, discuss their applicability in dream research, and outline promising directions for future research.