The Bereavement Experience: Dreams and Waking Experiences of the Deceased

Abstract

In separate literature—end-of-life experiences, dreams in bereavement, and continuing bonds in bereavement—there are preliminary findings that both dreaming of the deceased and having an experiential encounter while awake are common experiences. The present, brief report is a post hoc analysis of previously unanalyzed items from two studies of bereaved individuals. One study focused on loss following the death of a romantic partner (n= 268) and the other following the death of a dog or cat (n= 199). Participants were asked to indicate whether they had dreamed of the deceased or had a waking experience of seeing, hearing, or feeling the touch of the deceased in the prior month. Consistent with prior research, a substantial portion of each sample (50.7% of the partner loss participants and 32.2%of the pet loss) reported at least one waking experience of seeing, hearing, and/or feeling the deceased. When dreaming of the deceased and/or having a waking experience of the deceased were combined, it was found to be 82.5%for partner loss and 68.2%for pet loss. Furthermore, dreaming about the deceased was related to having such waking experiences. These preliminary, exploratory findings contribute to the growing recognition thatwe needmore research and theory into the function of such experiences for the bereaved and for those facing end of life.