Musicians Dream Of Music More Than Twice With Respect To Non-Musicians

Music in dreams is rarely reported in scientific literature, while the presence of musical themes in dreams of famous musicians is anecdotally reported. We did a systematic investigation to evaluate whether the occurrence of musical dreams could be related to musical competence and practice, and to explore specific features of dreamt pieces.

Thirty-five professional musicians and thirty non-musicians filled out a questionnaire about the characteristics of their musical activity and a structured dream log on the awakening for 30 consecutive days. Musicians dream of music more than twice with respect to non-musicians; musical dreams frequency is related to the age of commencement of musical instruction, but not to the daily load of musical activity. Nearly half of the recalled music was non-standard, suggesting that original music can be created in dreams.

There have been very few systematic studies of music in dreams, though one such [pdf], by Valeria Uga and her colleagues at the University of Florence in 2006, compared the dream logs of thirty-five professional musicians and thirty non-musicians. The researchers concluded that “musicians dreams of music more than twice as much as non-musicians [and] musical dream frequency is related to the age of commencement of musical instruction, but not to the daily load of musical activity. Nearly half of all recalled music was non-standard, suggesting that original music can be created in dreams.” While there have been many anecdotal stories of composers creating original compositions in dreams, this is the first study to lend support to the idea.

The finding has an interesting parallel with findings on the ‘age-of-acquisition effect’ in language research.

All music has a rhythm whether it motivates, stimulates, or soothes and calms the mind, body and spirit. Rhythm is the driving force of any natural flow.

We can alter our state of mind with music, we can celebrate life's great gifts with music, cling to it when we are grieving. We can improve the quality of life with music, and we can fill our lives with moments of joy because of music.. Music brings people together to sing, dance, and pay tribute. Music stimulates the mind and body, and has a huge capacity to heal. There has never been anything like it! Music can be nature made, human produced, even imagined. There is no limit!