Researchers from the University of Maryland asked 61 participants aged 17 to 42 who had been dating someone for at least six months, to keep a journal detailing their dream and relationship activity over a two-week period.
Findings showed that images of jealously and arguing triggered next-day conflict between couples while visions of infidelity resulted in reduced love or intimacy.
Figuring things out: Dreams can be used to predict future relationship behavior according to a new study
Commenting on the outcome, lead researcher Dylan Selterman told the Huffington Post: 'A lot of people don’t pay attention to their dreams and are unaware of the impact they have on their state of mind.
'Now we have evidence that there is this association.'
When it came to sex dreams volunteers in good couplings spent the following days with a heightened sense of love and intimacy.
However, those had by people in weaker relationships had the opposite effect.
Explaining the trend, Dr Selterman said: 'We already know there’s a high correlation between sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction, this might be another manifestation of that.
'Sex can be good or bad in a dream in the same way that it can be good or bad in real life.'
He believes these correlations are the result of a psychological effect known as 'priming' - the idea that exposure to external stimuli
(sights, sounds, smells) brings certain thoughts to the top of people’s minds.
'[Dreams] have predictive value. People’s activity changes as a function of the dream they had the night before,' he wrote in the paper.
He apparently based the research, published earlier this month in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, on his own experience with a college girlfriend who would get angry with the way he behaved in her dreams.
A study earlier this year published in the journal Dreaming revealed that romantic partners feature in about 20per cent of people's dreams.
一項關(guān)于夢境的預(yù)測價值的研究表明,夢見伴侶出軌或許預(yù)示著關(guān)系將面臨危機。
據(jù)英國《每日郵報》5月16日報道,馬里蘭大學(xué)的研究人員跟蹤調(diào)查了61位年齡在17到42歲之間的志愿者,觀察他們約會至少半年,并以兩星期為周期詳細記錄他們的夢境以及戀愛關(guān)系。
研究表明,夢見嫉妒或者爭吵場景,會引發(fā)雙方第二天的矛盾,而不忠誠的假想則會降低親密感。
研究負責(zé)人迪倫·賽爾特曼稱,“很多人不重視夢境,也沒有認識到夢對心情的影響。現(xiàn)在我們有證據(jù)表明這兩者之間是有聯(lián)系的。”
如果夢見性愛,關(guān)系良好的情侶會在未來幾天增強親密感;而關(guān)系不好的情侶效果正相反。賽爾特曼博士解釋說:“性滿足與情感滿足之間有高度關(guān)聯(lián)性,我們的研究或許說明了這一點。夢中的性愛有好有壞,正如現(xiàn)實中性愛有好有壞一樣。”