Globalization and the fact that more than half of the world’s population is at least bilingual reflect the extensive exposure to multiple languages in various aspects of life. This multilingual reality not only shapes our waking lives but also gets incorporated into our dreams. According to the Continuity Hypothesis (Schredl, 2003), our waking-life experiences are reflected in dreams. Given the significant role language plays in our daily lives, we can assume that they also play an important role in our dream worlds. This study investigates the influence of language use and exposure during the day on our dream languages. With an increasing exposure to a language during the day, the respective language occurs more often in subsequent dreams. Additionally, the native language seems to play a special role in dreams, as it occurs more often in dreams compared to the amount the native language is used in waking life as shown in a dream diary study with 70 participants in a multilingual environment. Exploring the relationship between language, cognition, and dreams may provide valuable insights and implications for mental health in a multilingual world.

Dilay Dollnick is a graduate research assistant in the Department of Ambulatory Assessment in Psychology at the University of Oldenburg. She has completed her Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrueck and is now doing her Master of Science in Neurocognitive Psychology at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. She has published her research together with one of the leading dream researchers worldwide Prof. Dr. Michael Schredl from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. Dilay Dollnick grew up bilingually and speaks and dreams in four languages.