The Relative Contribution of Affect Load and Affect Distress as Predictors of Disturbed Dreaming

This is the first study to empirically investigate the heuristic model of dysphoric dreaming proposed by Levin and Nielsen (2007). Participants indicated their incidence of nightmares (NMs) and bad dreams (BDs) over 21 days, and rated their subsequent distress in daily dream logs. Results support the contention that the 2 constructs identified in the model, affect load (AL) and affect distress (AD), underlie NM production and are active in both the waking and sleeping states. As predicted, AL accounted for more unique variance to the prediction of incidences of disturbed dreaming (DD), whereas AD accounted for more unique variance to the prediction of distress over NMs and BDs. Taken together, these findings are consistent with Levin and Nielsen's (2007) model and bolster earlier findings that suggest that distress about DD remains a crucial component in the relation between DD frequency and waking psychopathology.